"Kado: Part Three of the 'Ningen' Trilogy"
-By Vega
***
Author's Notes: Rated R for some nasty language and adult sitches.
Thanks: To LISS, who is my inspiration and model for the 'bad-tempered one' With out you and your drawings, she'd be 2D.
And to Logan. Please, where ever you are, know that everything I've ever posted since your first review, I don't consider good enough until you review it. Contact me, please.
New Language:
Chikyushu = bastard
Shine = DIE!
***
I screamed and Rurutip held me down as I flailed.
"No, no no!" I shrieked, and he snarled in my face, fingers curling around my shoulders so hard that bruises began to form. "No no no nonoooo!"
"Shut up!" Vejii snarled from nearby, hands clamped over his ears. "For kami's-sake, Maria, it's not the end of the god-damned universe!"
"Shut UP!" Ru snapped and I finally calmed, more afraid of his anger than anything else. "The HELL is wrong with you, woman?!"
"I don't WANT to!" I bawled back, tears filling my eyes.
Ru lifted his hand as if to slap me, then sighed and ran it through his hair. "His Majesty is correct. It's not the end of the world."
"I CAN'T be!" I sat up from the med. table and crossed my arms stubbornly. "I am NOT PREGNANT!"
And then, because it was still early morning, I sprang to me feet as my stomach began to convulse and ran to the closest bathroom, praying that I wouldn't vomit on the floor.
***
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back.
Ningen here. Lover of Rurutip. Pseudo-Mother of King "Vejii" Vejiita-ou. Slave to the Saiya-jinn race. And, six months after I returned from my disappointing and disastrous visit to Chikyuu-sei.... Mother to be.
Oh, you can be damn sure Ru wasn't getting any for WEEKS after I discovered what he had done.
You think this sort of thing would at LEAST require my permission. But did he ask me? Oh, HELL no...
But, the sex was the best we'd had in years after I had returned from Chikyuu-sei, so I hadn't really complained that one night that Rurutip seemed to be doing some really odd and kinky things.
Sex wasn't as comfortable and casual as it had been in the past sixteen years -not that that stuff had been boring - but Ru had this underlying... passion ... to him. Like he was making damn sure I knew that he was happy I'd chosen him over my own kind; over Tony. Like there was ANY chance of THAT.
On one particular night, it was MUCH better than the rest.
I had groaned and rolled over sometime past midnight, out of Ru's grasp, and buried my face in the pillows.
"Please, have a little sympathy." I whined when I felt his large, warm hands begin to roam down my back. I have always been a 'hands' girl -I find long, slender, well cared for hands VERY attractive - and when he touched me like that, my whole body sprang to life despite my obvious exhaustion, eager for a repeat performance.
"Hn." He snorted gently into my ear, sidling up behind me so we could 'spoon'. In that position, my backside pressed up against his stomach (he's a TALL guy, okay?) I could tell EXACTLY what he was thinking, and with which head.
"Oh, gimmie a break!" I wailed.
"No," Ru whispered, tongue flicking out. "You smell too good tonight."
"That's 'cause I'm in the middle of my cycle." I said blatantly, trying desperately to kill the mood.
But Ru would not be swayed and he trailed his hands down my back again, this time pausing to caress by bottom. I shivered in delight, and gave up. Ru was going to win... AGAIN.
Turning to face him, I let my hands to their own exploring and tugged playfully on his tail. What was pressing into my stomach suddenly got a lot firmer, and Ru gasped, his head thrown back.
Then he rolled us and pinned me down onto the pillows and smirked.
"Keep that up, and you won't like what I do."
"Ru, honey," I smiled back, "I've seen ALL your tricks."
"You think so?" he murmured suggestively, taking my words as a challenge. "We'll see."
His face dipped out of my view and I craned my neck to see what he was doing. When I felt his hot little tongue caress the inside of one of my thighs I shuddered and arched towards him. He blew gently on the wet patch he had created, then ran the soft outer hairs of the tip of his tail over the area too.
I shivered in ecstasy.
"Well, THAT'S new..." I murmured, looking down at where he was kneeling between my knees.
"It gets better..." he smiled, and his tail began to wander everywhere.
I gasped when I felt it push up against my entrance and giggled a little. Oh, this was new indeed!
***
That was night I got pregnant. Goddamned man. He got me so excited and so worn out that I didn't notice that he had actually worn himself out to; in the effort it took to make sure the stuff he made was the real deal, he had exhausted himself, desperate to mate.
I think it was the first time he had ever fallen asleep before me.
***
Anyway, lets skip back ahead to the morning I found out I was pregnant. I'd been sick to my stomach every morning for a week, and thinking it was just a stomach flu I must have picked up six months earlier on Chikyuu-sei, I asked Ru to take me to the Med Labs. We had met Vejii on the way, and, curious as to why my face was pale and sweat-sheened, he had wanted to come too.
When the doctor told me that I wasn't sick, I was expecting, I flipped on Ru. I mean, he didn't even ASK me! He just... DID it!
Vejii laughed all the way back to his own chambers, and wished Ru luck with me.
So, either vomiting too much to speak to Rurutip, or too mad, we said not a word to one another that day until, around sunset, he came and dragged me from the bathroom and wrapped me into a robe and plunked me rather forcefully into a chair at his little dining table.
My insides tightened at the scent of the food thereon, from both nausea and hunger. I covered my mouth with my hand.
Now, I know what you're going to say, "Morning sickness only happens in the morning". Yeah, I wish. Not when you're a human carrying a Saiyan, it doesn't. It lasts ALL day for MONTHS.
Saiya-jinn females waltz around all day as if they weren't even carrying another life inside them; Me, my new favourite place was right beside the toilet. I even pulled a few pillows and a blanket in there for the days it was really bad. But that's me getting ahead of myself again...
Anyway, having plopped me into the chair, Ru then took his own and snarled "Eat. I won't have you starve to death."
"I wasn't planning to." I sulked, crossing my arms over my belly with realizing it. "I just don't feel like eating today. That's all."
He grunted as if he didn't believe me, and pushed a platter of 'rushga' towards me. To this day, I still don't know what the stringy, brown-sauced stuff is made of, but it's good warm, and tastes faintly of ginger and cinnamon.
Ru didn't make it, of course (he couldn't burn toast); we 'ordered-out' from the palace kitchens like most warriors, as it were. And Ru didn't like my Chikyuu-jinn concoctions much.
Imagine that, a Saiya-jinn that was a picky eater. Has Hell froze over yet?
I stared at the 'rushga' in front of me, disinterested in food in general, and merely picked at it with my utensils.
Finally, when I could stand the heavy silence no more, I looked up at Ru and asked, "Why did you do this?"
He stared at me as if I were a moron, and for a moment I feared that he thought I was asking him why he had gotten us dinner. But then I saw the hastily-repressed hurt on his face, and knew he knew what I meant.
"Because I wanted to." He answered simply, shoving a handful of rushga into his face. "And it was the full moon last week. I wouldnt've had the chance for another eight years. "
I stood abruptly. "Is THAT how you justify this!?" I wailed, flailing my arms in the air like a mad woman. "Not only did you NOT bother to ask ME, the one stuck with this THING in my body for nearly a year, but you're really willing to bring a life form, an innocent, impressionable CHILD into a relationship like ours, one without true lo--" I snapped a hand over my own mouth before I could finish the sentence, horrified at my words.
"LOVE!?" Ru snarled, shooting to his own feet. "Is THAT what you were going to say?!"
I closed my eyes and bowed my head, ashamed of myself and my rash, hurtful words.
Ru made a strange sound, which after a few seconds I interpreted as a heart-felt sigh. I looked back up, and had to repress a gasp of shock as I realized that Rurutip's lovely ashen eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.
"Do you really think I would have done this if I thought that?" He hissed, head lowered, glaring at me angrily from beneath viscously drawn eyebrows.
Then he stormed out of the room, leaving me to stare stupidly at the spot where he had been, one hand resting lightly on my stomach, my chest heaving.
***
After the morning sickness came the awful cramps. I was hungry ALL the time. It was like the kid just couldn't get enough food. I did nothing but eat for hours and hours on end, and Vejii soon gave up on ever seeing me away from Ru's table. I wasn't to appear in court again until the child was almost six months old.
Vejii was, at least, kind enough to visit me every few days, just to see how I was coping. It was hard not seeing him everyday, as I was used to it. He was, after all, my little boy still, even if he was sixteen years old, and the King of the Saiya-jinn Empire.
He often made fun of me for eating like a Saiyan. I told him rather bluntly one day that not only am I eating FOR a Saiya-jinn, but for a human on top of that.
Ru would have hit me for something so blatantly rude, but Vejii just laughed. I think he was very happy that I was having a child, as he had often wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. Oh, we both knew that the kid wouldn't be his brother or sister biologically, but he was determined to treat it as one.
And Vejii was very stubborn when he set his mind to things.
There was a lot of trouble over the fact that my child would be a half-ling, impure, bastard offspring of a first-class Saiyan and a Chikyuu-jinn slave bitch. Normally the baby would be destroyed, and if the Saiyan was feeling particularly nasty, the concubine as well. However, such an occurrence was rare as Saiya-jinn could control their fertility, and this was a special case because it had the approval of the Prince.
Also, I'm sure the scientists of Vejiita-sei were curious about the possibilities of Saiya-jinn/ Chikyuu-jinn mating. It was obvious it could be done, as Gohan had been born all those years ago, but when Kakarotto had vanished, he had taken his son's corpse with him, so they'd never had the chance to study the halfling.
Bardock had kept his son and grandchild almost a secret when they had first be captured and brought back to Vejiita-sei, and no one save himself and his other son, Radditzu, had been allowed to see them, outside of the Royal family. Therefore, no DNA samples.
When Vejii learned the story of Kakarotto, he had sent dozens of squads out to search the galaxy for the SuperSaiya-jinn, determined to learn his secret. He even upped his own training regiment, but was unable to do so by much because of his duties as King.
All that ever came back were vague reports of a golden-haired Saiya-jinn that stayed in space-ports or crumby hotels when he could find them for a few days before moving on to an unknown destination. There were uncertain and vague stories of him adopting abandoned human/sayain children.
The last confirmed sighting was almost five years ago, and so Vejii had all but given up. He recalled all but one of the squads to Vejiita-sei, and left the last one with standing orders to track down and bring back Kakarotto... alive.
I think Vejii nearly forgot about Kakarotto over the years, but sometimes I would still find him out in the garden, screaming up at the night sky, "WHY HIM!?"
***
After the horrible stomach cramps came the constant bruises.
The kid WAS a Saiya-jinn, after all, and like all Saiya-jinn he was fighter and he felt the need to train.... inside of ME.
I just wish he could have waited until he was out of my womb. Might have been easier for me.
As it was, I spent a lot of time in bed, my arms wrapped around my middle, fighting not to scream or sob. Rurutip grew very worried when this began, afraid that I would be injured by the child inside of me doing metaphorical backflips and roundhouse kicks.
My spine was entirely too close to the child for Ru's liking, but the medical technicians said that the kid was staying away from that area, almost as if by instinct. They found that interesting, and tested it throughly. And let me assure you now, nothing they did hurt either me or my child.
Vejii would have turned them inside out if they did, and Ru would have then turned them back right-side in.
Saiyan women usually didn't carry their young much longer than two of their six month gestation period. Then the offspring were removed from the womb and 'grown' in cold, sterile tubes in a lab, or sort of grand nursery. However, I didn't want my child to go through that, and so had fought to carry him or her myself.
At first the technicians, when I had reached the two-month stage, actually CAME INTO Ru's room to forcefully DRAG me back to the lab and extract the fetus. I screamed the entire way, kicking and biting where I could, but in the end it was Vejii's complaint of the noise I made that stopped them from going through with it.
I was grateful to him like I hadn't been in years and wept at his feet until Rurutip was summoned to collect me.
As the baby got older, and more fully developed, actual bruises appeared on the outside of my belly. Again Ru was concerned, and wanted me to go into a regen tank every once and a while to clear them up, but I feared what it would do to the baby, and so refused.
I therefore spent many a day moaning in bed, just counting off the days on my fingers. "Three more months... two more months... one more month.... one more week... oh, gawd!"
The estimated date of birth for the child was, according to our Julius Calender, exactly seven months and three days after conception: November 27th.
My child was going to be a Sagittarius. He was going to yearn for adventure and new heights constantly. But at least he would always know where home was.
I don't know how well that was going to sit between Ru and I. I was a Libra, the peace maker, the analyser, and (if he hadn't been lying) I had deduced that he was a Scorpio, deep but controlling. And how do you control someone who constantly seeks new horizons?
It's not like I was all into the whole astrological thing, you know. It's just that I found it fascinating that these things were always so close to being right. I was Libra through and through.
So, the day my baby was born -the exact day predicted- the bruising and vomiting and cramps were at their worst. I vaguely recall wondering if Kakarotto's human mate had suffered as much as this for Gohan.
I remember waking up that morning, groaning horribly. I think Ru shook me awake. He'd been real antsy the last five or six weeks because I'd been so sick that it was ill-advised that we had sex. I suppose he really missed it. I didn't. I never wanted him on top of me again, just in case he tried to pull another disaster like this.
So, when I was moaning and sweating in my sleep, more so than usual, he shook me back to consciousness, and I was moderately gratified to see genuine worry writ on his face.
"Mayra!" He hissed,"What's wrong!"
"I think he's trying to rip me apart," I moaned.
He scooped me up and ushered me into the birthing area of the med labs. This place was usually only used for Royal births because only the Prince's mother carried her child to full term. But, because it was the only "maternity" area on the whole bloody planet, Vejii had agreed to let me give birth there.
And GAWD, was I happy he did! Pain-killers are wonderful things, really. Not that a Saiya-jinn would bother with them, but for me, they were heaven-sent.
I lost track of the hours; I lost track of the pain. I sort of just shut down.
And when the med technicians finally held the screaming child in front of my sweat-beaded face I gently smiled and proceeded to pass out.
***
At the same time, back on Chikyuu-sei, a young woman was also giving birth to a half-breed Saiya-jinn. Unfortunately, she was not as lucky as I, and had no doctors to attend her.
She died giving her wailing daughter life in a squalid inner-city alley.
Only a few steps away the Saiya-jinn father who had refused to aide her finally sat up to wrinkle his aristocratic nose at the stench of a new corpse and fetal blood. He stepped up to lift the tiny, venerable babe by her tender tail.
The baby SCREAMED.
"Oh, DO shut the fuck up." The father said and proceeded to rip his daughter's head off.
For a moment he stared at the bright blood pooling on the alley floor. "Damn girl." He snorted. "Who needs a fucking female?" He tossed first the child's head to one side, then the body to the other.
With a contemplative stroke of his waxed mustachio, the tall, almost painfully slim Saiyan turned his glittering onyx eyes back to the stiffening corpse of his latest conquest.
Oh, how lovely she had been! Humans were such wonderfully pathetic things when they were pregnant with Saiya-jinn children. The pain that contorted her attractive features had been no less than breathtaking to him.
A pity the children were never any good. Damn weakling halfling brats. He'd had to kill so many... they were just so weak.
With a small smile he headed towards the corpse of the mother, lust evident on his face. Just because she was dead didn't mean she couldn't provide him with a little amusement.
But before he could reach the body, a golden flash cut him off. He turned his eyes to glare with furious indignation at the figure on a nearby roof-top that had thrown the ki in his way.
"Leave her alone!" the other Saiya-jinn shouted in outrage, "You've done enough, Epinard! I'm going to stop you once and for all!"
Epinard paused for a moment, then threw back his head, his slicked-back hair bouncing in it's braid with his laughter. "You?! You've had your chance, traitor!" he spat. "And you did not kill me! You could not! You're far too WEAK!"
The other Saiyan snarled furiously, his hair whipping up and bleaching blond. "Stop, Epinard! Or this time I will not hesitate to kill you!" One furious emerald eye glared at the other Saiya-jinn. Th remains of his other eye was trapped behind an eyepatch that this same foe had given him years ago.
"Tell me another fairy story, oh great Super-Saiya-jinn!" Epinard returned mockingly, a malicious grin on his slim face.
With that he took off into the sky and was gone. His adversary didn't have the heart to chase him down today.
The Saiya-jinn on the roof top sighed, the golden aura fading from his body, his tail tightening marginally around his waist with his anxiety. He had purposefully grown his tail back years ago, so he could be stronger; so he could slip unnoticed among the ranks of the other Saiyans that moved about the galaxy.
A little girl came forward from the shadows, no more than twelve, her Saiya-jinn heritage apparent by her own tail, her human side revealed in her sparkling green eyes and long, flowing teal hair. She tugged on the man's loose, sleeve-less, black gi.
The man placed a tender had on the top of her head. "Hai, Aleta-chan?"
"Is the baby gone?"
The man sighed, heart-broken. "Hai, we were too late."
"Oh." the little girl said, the eldest of his haphazard adoptive brood. "Then the next one, right Gokuu-sensei? We'll save the next one."
"Hai." Gokuu said, turning his visible now-black eye to the sky. "We'll save the next one."
***
I did not know that poor woman, nor her child.
But I was soon enough to meet Epinard... and become re-acquainted with his rival.
***
When I awoke in Ru's rooms once again, the painkillers having worn off and the tell-tale reek of regen-gel about me, I heard the desperate screams of a starving Saiya-jinn child in the next room.
I recognized the sound, the particular pitch of it, from when Vejii had been a child, and I ached to console the baby.
Stiffly I rose, dressed, and peeked my head out into the sitting room. Rurutip sat cross-legged on the floor, the baby -who, remarkably, could already sit up by himself- was wailing in the small space Ru's legs created, pulling on his father's tail with a hungry urgency.
Ru only stared at the child as if unsure what to do with it. He hadn't even put clothes on the kid yet.
With a soft smile, and a small snort of amusement, I lifted a towel from the rack by the bedroom door and knelt in front of Ru, wrapping the goose-bumped child in it and noticing happily that it was a boy.
I had a son!
"Don't coddle him," Ru snarled. "He'll grow dependant and weak."
"I've raised a Saiyan before." I said back, unaffected by his curt tone, "Remember? And Vejii turned out pretty well."
"Hn." Ru snorted. "The King still reads too much."
I bared a breast to feed my boy, and saw Ru stare at it, like he was jealous that the boy was getting what HE wanted.
"Later." I murmured, and he seemed satisfied with that promise. "What have you named him?"
"I did not." Ru said haughtily. "I cannot think of a suitable name."
I mulled this over before suggesting a few very Chikyuu-jinn names that had been my favourites: Nicholas, James, Alexander... the list went on and Ru proclaimed them all to be unfit. I delved into other languages, into history: Titus, Frollo, Ceaser. He gainsaid them all.
"Then, Kado." I said finally and he paused to blink at me.
"What does it mean?"
" 'The Gateway.' "
Ru thought for a moment, tail twitching, thumping rhythmically against the carpet. Then he said, "It seems appropriate. Kado."
The child in my arms paused in his feeding only long enough to gurgle his approval.
***
I did not know it, but as Rurutip and Kado and I were enjoying our first 'family' time together, Epinard had returned to Vejiita-sei. When the rumours of a First-Class warrior had bred with a HUMAN met his ears, he was intrigued and decided that he wanted to have a little fun with this -with MY- newfound happiness.
However, as soon as he was recognized, his squad was sent to Ieart-sei to get rid of the damned Royal family. That princess just wouldn't leave Vejii alone, and his normally smooth patience had frayed.
Epinard, after that, was sent to a particularly far planet for collecting, and so was not to return to Vejiita-sei for another thirteen years.
Nor was his arch rival, or his small brood of rescued Saiya-jinn/Chikyuu-jinn half-breeds. They were too busy trying to give every child they found a peaceful and happy existence.
I am sad to say that there were a lot of human/Saiyan hybrids. Though Saiya-jinn men can control their fertility, HUMAN men cannot, and there were a great many accidents. It pissed the Saiya-jinn females off to get pregnant, and the fetus' were often destroyed.
If any lived to see the light of day they were slaughtered or abandoned to death wherever they had been birthed.
Gokuu and his 'children' saved those that they could and gave them a family.
And for the next thirteen years, as Gokuu and Epinard fought their ding-dong battles across the galaxy, the former never screwing up the courage to kill the latter, a few select children of the Earth Saiyan's brood were training.
They were determined that one day they were going to find a way to convince Vejii that the Saiya-jinn empire would be better off to fight for peace rather than gain.
And in the meantime, my son, Kado, was growing up.
***
Kado brushed the sweat-heavy mousey brown bangs from his eyes and began his katas all over again, his concentration broken by my humming in the next room over.
"Okassan!" he bawled, as rude as his father. "Shut up! I can't THINK and father wants me to know these katas by sundown!"
"Now, Kado-kun." I answered softly, my voice wafting in from where I was trying to compose a new song, "What do civilized people say when they want something?"
"Please." he reluctantly ground out, sparkling amber eyes narrowed hatefully.
"Much better." I responded, glad at least THAT had stuck in his thirteen-year old mind. Sometimes, I swear, it was like pulling teeth. But I stayed quiet for him nonetheless.
He resumed his katas, and I resumed my writing, until he grew too tired and crawled up onto the chair beside me, his tail wagging. "Watcha doin'?"
"Writing a new song."
"Again?"
"Hai."
Kado smiled and puffed out his little chest. "I don't need to sing for the king to recognize me! I'll fight like Otousan!"
"Yes, I know." I answered back, pretending not to be hurt by his callous words. We both knew it was his fate to murder his father one day and take his place as a royal guard. I was just glad that day was still years off. "But Vejiita-sama already recognizes you, Kado."
My son puffed out even more. He was the only child ever to have sparred with the King – and been able to keep up with him. Vejii however was still far to agile and intelligent a fighter for the brute strength Kado employed to work.
But, Kado was STRONG; stronger than he should have been with my weak blood in him, and he was well on the fast-track to becoming an Elite. For that, and for his unwavering determination, I was proud of him.
My son was never arrogant. He was intelligent, and educated, and -when you got him away from his first passion, sparring- he was an avid reader. Once you put a Dickens novel in his hand, you'd never see him again until he was done it.
"Okassan, I'm going to see Aurek-san." He said matter-of-factly, hopping down from the chair and heading towards the door. He didn't need to ask permission from me (after all, I was still only a slave and he was considered under the law a full-blooded Saiya-jinn so I had to obey his orders, even though I was his mother) but I liked to know where he was nonetheless.
"Okay." I said softly and bowed my head once more to the sheet music before me. "Be home for dinner."
"I'd never miss food!" Kado said brightly, and in a flash of ki was gone.
I sighed after my little boy (little, what am I saying, 'little'?! He was five and a half feet tall already!), and smiled.
***
A lone space pod tumbled back to ground and when it had safely landed, a painfully slim Saiya-jinn emerged.
"Welcome back, Captain Epinard." A nearby guard said, saluting, but the man ignored him.
Laughter broke the silence and two young boys, one obviously Saiya-jinn, though oddly light-hued in hair and eyes, and another, an elfin boy with large pointed ears and big black eyes, raced by, the former attempting to catch the latter.
Epinard glared at them hatefully and went about his business.
And not far behind him, Gokuu's own space pod raced to catch up before it was too late.
In their last battle, Epinard had let something slip about a surviving Saiya-jinn/Chikyuu-jinn hybrid on Vejiita-sei that he had meant to destroy thirteen years earlier.
Gokuu - his determination evident in a scowl so much like his father's that, had he not been sporting an eyepatch, he would have been mistaken for Bardock - only prayed to a Kami he'd nearly given up on that he wasn't too late.
***
Aurek was a species known as the Piux-jinn. They are generally short as a rule, with large pointy ears, big black, almond shaped eyes, green-hued skin and flowing blond hair. They were a very friendly people, and adapted well to any situation.
The Piux-jinn had been slaves of the Saiya-jinn empire much longer than Chikyuu's twenty nine years. So long that Aurek's grandparents had been born slaves.
Aurek and Kado met when my son was about ten, and they'd been inseparable friends ever since, for although the Piux-jinn were lithe gangly creatures, they could move FAST, and Kado, in his younger years, had made it a game to try to catch Aurek.
At first, Kado would grow angry when he could not catch up to the Piux-jinn, and sometimes beat him if he ever caught him, but Aurek showed him a few speed-secrets, and the boys fast became best buds.
They were never apart for more than a day.
***
The next morning I sat up lazily, waking Ru, who'd had his arms wrapped around my middle.
He snarled softly at me, then went back to sleep. "Baka no Onna." he muttered.
I smiled and got up, opening the curtains. He groaned and hid his shaggy head under a pillow.
"Ru-kun, you have to go greet the collecting crew that arrived last night, have you forgotten?"
"Damn." I heard him curse, then he pulled himself to his feet. "Come, bathe with me."
I nodded slowly and followed him to the bathroom, glancing around to make sure Kado had already left for his early-morning spar with Vejii. He had.
An evil smile spread across my lips, and I jumped on Ru's back.
***
Epinard looked around the King's main audience chambers with an air of boredom. He tugged on his pencil mustache briefly, pondering.
Around here, somewhere, would be the half-ling brat of the unnamed warrior and his Chikyuu-jinn bitch. It was just a matter of finding out which warrior had been dumb enough to first impregnate and then KEEP the child, and kill him - or at least get him out of the way, if he was a higher form of Elite than Epinard himself. That way, there'd be a human bitch to impregnate and play with (one whom he knew it would take on) and a brat to experiment with.
And, Oh! To have a fully-trained demi-Saiya-jinn! How amusing it would be to rip the little thing to pieces!
And there wouldn't be anything that that damned Kakarotto could do about it.
Epinard frowned briefly.
Damn that Kakarotto. How dare he call himself SuperSaiyan? He wasn't even a true SAIYAN, let alone the super variety.
Kakarotto had hesitated to KILL.
More than once, if Epinard had been keeping count correctly. Almost ... was the number nearing fifty now? Kakarotto had had the opportunity to destroy him more than once, and each time he could not bring himself to do it, and so Epinard had escaped.
Damn, fifty times Kakarotto had won, and the only damage he'd done to show for his continued survival and honour Epinard had was three sets of scars and an eyepatch. He had managed to gouge out Kakarotto's right eye a few years back... then there was the strange star-shaped scar on his left cheek and the slash over his collar bone.
The collar bone scar was from the time Epinard had tried to rip Kakarotto's treacherous heart from his chest. He had actually felt it his fingers on it before Kakarot had pulled away! The one on his cheek Epinard had made during their first battle after some blue-haired human bitch's death. He had done it to spite Kakarotto, to remind him forever of where he came from by giving him a scar identical to Bardock's.
Oh, yes, and the parallel scars that Epinard had scraped out of the flesh of Kakarotto's left arm, too. That had been... those were sword scars, weren't they?
Epinard's frown grew deeper.
Next time, however... next time he might not be so lucky. Kakarotto had come awfully close to doing it last time, and Epinard now had -thanks to his trip to the regen tanks- a very large, very itchy scar on his formally flawless chest.
Damn that Kakarotto!
He wasn't sure what irked him more, the fact that a traitor like Kakarotto was the Legendary SuperSaiya-jinn... or that his beautiful chest had been marred!
Turning his thoughts away from his rival, Epinard stood at attention when the King and his personal entourage entered the room.
Rurutip - the captain of the Royal Guard- stood at the foot of the dias, and the King took the throne, that bitch with the voice standing off to one side and the rest of his followers with her.
Sighing inwardly, Epinard stepped forward to list off the quantities of each of the resources he'd collected on his last outbound trip, starting with the slaves.
***
I watched with half-boredom, half-pity as Epinard's crew boasted about their 'collecting'. The slaves I felt very sorry for, but they couldn't have been coming into a better system.
At least here they'd still be treated like people. I'd heard of other places where they're treated much worse. I know that sounds callous of me, but I live in a world where slavery is legal - and there are far worse places to be in this universe than Vejiita-sei.
When they were finished, the King dismissed them, and they stood to the side as a few other squads had their chances to boast. Then we were all dismissed.
Epinard had been staring at me oddly the whole time we had been in the main audience chamber - not that that was too odd, a lot of people stared. But his eyes kept darting back and forth between me, Rurutip, and Kado, who was standing off to one side with me.
He had come skittering in the room, breathless, after Epinard's presentation to stand as close the King as decorum allowed. He had really wanted to see this (even if he was a little late), and Vejii was always happy to show him the ropes of ruling.
I had a suspicion that Vejii would have liked to have made Kado the next in line because of his obvious intelligence, politeness, and eagerness to fight, but it was not allowed. Besides, having to deal with the fact that Kado would one day kill Ru was hard enough on me, but to think that he might kill Vejii too...!
Epinard looked at me again, and I accidentally locked eyes with him. A dark smile spread over his sharp face and I shuddered for some unknown reason. I suddenly decided that I did not like this man...
... and then he stepped over to Rurutip and they began to speak.
***
I really was uncomfortable in Epinard's private chambers, but with Ru on one side of me, his tail wrapped around my hips in a clear gesture that screamed 'MINE' and Kado glaring at Epinard through his long, brushed-forward bangs, I felt much safer than I would alone.
I ate in silence.
Epinard continued to prattle on, waxing elegant on how delightful it was to be able to host the leader of the Squads and a Royal Elite at his table.
And yet, every once and a while, I felt those cold, cold eyes turn to me; more than once I almost choked.
Rurutip seemed oblivious to the silent aura of menace that Epinard seemed to ooze, but I felt it, and so too did Kado, for he and I exchanged glances on more than one occasion over the course of the evening.
Epinard was planning something nasty, but for the life of me, I did not know what.
***
END PART ONE
-By Vega
***
Author's Notes: Rated R for some nasty language and adult sitches.
Thanks: To LISS, who is my inspiration and model for the 'bad-tempered one' With out you and your drawings, she'd be 2D.
And to Logan. Please, where ever you are, know that everything I've ever posted since your first review, I don't consider good enough until you review it. Contact me, please.
New Language:
Chikyushu = bastard
Shine = DIE!
***
I screamed and Rurutip held me down as I flailed.
"No, no no!" I shrieked, and he snarled in my face, fingers curling around my shoulders so hard that bruises began to form. "No no no nonoooo!"
"Shut up!" Vejii snarled from nearby, hands clamped over his ears. "For kami's-sake, Maria, it's not the end of the god-damned universe!"
"Shut UP!" Ru snapped and I finally calmed, more afraid of his anger than anything else. "The HELL is wrong with you, woman?!"
"I don't WANT to!" I bawled back, tears filling my eyes.
Ru lifted his hand as if to slap me, then sighed and ran it through his hair. "His Majesty is correct. It's not the end of the world."
"I CAN'T be!" I sat up from the med. table and crossed my arms stubbornly. "I am NOT PREGNANT!"
And then, because it was still early morning, I sprang to me feet as my stomach began to convulse and ran to the closest bathroom, praying that I wouldn't vomit on the floor.
***
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back.
Ningen here. Lover of Rurutip. Pseudo-Mother of King "Vejii" Vejiita-ou. Slave to the Saiya-jinn race. And, six months after I returned from my disappointing and disastrous visit to Chikyuu-sei.... Mother to be.
Oh, you can be damn sure Ru wasn't getting any for WEEKS after I discovered what he had done.
You think this sort of thing would at LEAST require my permission. But did he ask me? Oh, HELL no...
But, the sex was the best we'd had in years after I had returned from Chikyuu-sei, so I hadn't really complained that one night that Rurutip seemed to be doing some really odd and kinky things.
Sex wasn't as comfortable and casual as it had been in the past sixteen years -not that that stuff had been boring - but Ru had this underlying... passion ... to him. Like he was making damn sure I knew that he was happy I'd chosen him over my own kind; over Tony. Like there was ANY chance of THAT.
On one particular night, it was MUCH better than the rest.
I had groaned and rolled over sometime past midnight, out of Ru's grasp, and buried my face in the pillows.
"Please, have a little sympathy." I whined when I felt his large, warm hands begin to roam down my back. I have always been a 'hands' girl -I find long, slender, well cared for hands VERY attractive - and when he touched me like that, my whole body sprang to life despite my obvious exhaustion, eager for a repeat performance.
"Hn." He snorted gently into my ear, sidling up behind me so we could 'spoon'. In that position, my backside pressed up against his stomach (he's a TALL guy, okay?) I could tell EXACTLY what he was thinking, and with which head.
"Oh, gimmie a break!" I wailed.
"No," Ru whispered, tongue flicking out. "You smell too good tonight."
"That's 'cause I'm in the middle of my cycle." I said blatantly, trying desperately to kill the mood.
But Ru would not be swayed and he trailed his hands down my back again, this time pausing to caress by bottom. I shivered in delight, and gave up. Ru was going to win... AGAIN.
Turning to face him, I let my hands to their own exploring and tugged playfully on his tail. What was pressing into my stomach suddenly got a lot firmer, and Ru gasped, his head thrown back.
Then he rolled us and pinned me down onto the pillows and smirked.
"Keep that up, and you won't like what I do."
"Ru, honey," I smiled back, "I've seen ALL your tricks."
"You think so?" he murmured suggestively, taking my words as a challenge. "We'll see."
His face dipped out of my view and I craned my neck to see what he was doing. When I felt his hot little tongue caress the inside of one of my thighs I shuddered and arched towards him. He blew gently on the wet patch he had created, then ran the soft outer hairs of the tip of his tail over the area too.
I shivered in ecstasy.
"Well, THAT'S new..." I murmured, looking down at where he was kneeling between my knees.
"It gets better..." he smiled, and his tail began to wander everywhere.
I gasped when I felt it push up against my entrance and giggled a little. Oh, this was new indeed!
***
That was night I got pregnant. Goddamned man. He got me so excited and so worn out that I didn't notice that he had actually worn himself out to; in the effort it took to make sure the stuff he made was the real deal, he had exhausted himself, desperate to mate.
I think it was the first time he had ever fallen asleep before me.
***
Anyway, lets skip back ahead to the morning I found out I was pregnant. I'd been sick to my stomach every morning for a week, and thinking it was just a stomach flu I must have picked up six months earlier on Chikyuu-sei, I asked Ru to take me to the Med Labs. We had met Vejii on the way, and, curious as to why my face was pale and sweat-sheened, he had wanted to come too.
When the doctor told me that I wasn't sick, I was expecting, I flipped on Ru. I mean, he didn't even ASK me! He just... DID it!
Vejii laughed all the way back to his own chambers, and wished Ru luck with me.
So, either vomiting too much to speak to Rurutip, or too mad, we said not a word to one another that day until, around sunset, he came and dragged me from the bathroom and wrapped me into a robe and plunked me rather forcefully into a chair at his little dining table.
My insides tightened at the scent of the food thereon, from both nausea and hunger. I covered my mouth with my hand.
Now, I know what you're going to say, "Morning sickness only happens in the morning". Yeah, I wish. Not when you're a human carrying a Saiyan, it doesn't. It lasts ALL day for MONTHS.
Saiya-jinn females waltz around all day as if they weren't even carrying another life inside them; Me, my new favourite place was right beside the toilet. I even pulled a few pillows and a blanket in there for the days it was really bad. But that's me getting ahead of myself again...
Anyway, having plopped me into the chair, Ru then took his own and snarled "Eat. I won't have you starve to death."
"I wasn't planning to." I sulked, crossing my arms over my belly with realizing it. "I just don't feel like eating today. That's all."
He grunted as if he didn't believe me, and pushed a platter of 'rushga' towards me. To this day, I still don't know what the stringy, brown-sauced stuff is made of, but it's good warm, and tastes faintly of ginger and cinnamon.
Ru didn't make it, of course (he couldn't burn toast); we 'ordered-out' from the palace kitchens like most warriors, as it were. And Ru didn't like my Chikyuu-jinn concoctions much.
Imagine that, a Saiya-jinn that was a picky eater. Has Hell froze over yet?
I stared at the 'rushga' in front of me, disinterested in food in general, and merely picked at it with my utensils.
Finally, when I could stand the heavy silence no more, I looked up at Ru and asked, "Why did you do this?"
He stared at me as if I were a moron, and for a moment I feared that he thought I was asking him why he had gotten us dinner. But then I saw the hastily-repressed hurt on his face, and knew he knew what I meant.
"Because I wanted to." He answered simply, shoving a handful of rushga into his face. "And it was the full moon last week. I wouldnt've had the chance for another eight years. "
I stood abruptly. "Is THAT how you justify this!?" I wailed, flailing my arms in the air like a mad woman. "Not only did you NOT bother to ask ME, the one stuck with this THING in my body for nearly a year, but you're really willing to bring a life form, an innocent, impressionable CHILD into a relationship like ours, one without true lo--" I snapped a hand over my own mouth before I could finish the sentence, horrified at my words.
"LOVE!?" Ru snarled, shooting to his own feet. "Is THAT what you were going to say?!"
I closed my eyes and bowed my head, ashamed of myself and my rash, hurtful words.
Ru made a strange sound, which after a few seconds I interpreted as a heart-felt sigh. I looked back up, and had to repress a gasp of shock as I realized that Rurutip's lovely ashen eyes were sparkling with unshed tears.
"Do you really think I would have done this if I thought that?" He hissed, head lowered, glaring at me angrily from beneath viscously drawn eyebrows.
Then he stormed out of the room, leaving me to stare stupidly at the spot where he had been, one hand resting lightly on my stomach, my chest heaving.
***
After the morning sickness came the awful cramps. I was hungry ALL the time. It was like the kid just couldn't get enough food. I did nothing but eat for hours and hours on end, and Vejii soon gave up on ever seeing me away from Ru's table. I wasn't to appear in court again until the child was almost six months old.
Vejii was, at least, kind enough to visit me every few days, just to see how I was coping. It was hard not seeing him everyday, as I was used to it. He was, after all, my little boy still, even if he was sixteen years old, and the King of the Saiya-jinn Empire.
He often made fun of me for eating like a Saiyan. I told him rather bluntly one day that not only am I eating FOR a Saiya-jinn, but for a human on top of that.
Ru would have hit me for something so blatantly rude, but Vejii just laughed. I think he was very happy that I was having a child, as he had often wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. Oh, we both knew that the kid wouldn't be his brother or sister biologically, but he was determined to treat it as one.
And Vejii was very stubborn when he set his mind to things.
There was a lot of trouble over the fact that my child would be a half-ling, impure, bastard offspring of a first-class Saiyan and a Chikyuu-jinn slave bitch. Normally the baby would be destroyed, and if the Saiyan was feeling particularly nasty, the concubine as well. However, such an occurrence was rare as Saiya-jinn could control their fertility, and this was a special case because it had the approval of the Prince.
Also, I'm sure the scientists of Vejiita-sei were curious about the possibilities of Saiya-jinn/ Chikyuu-jinn mating. It was obvious it could be done, as Gohan had been born all those years ago, but when Kakarotto had vanished, he had taken his son's corpse with him, so they'd never had the chance to study the halfling.
Bardock had kept his son and grandchild almost a secret when they had first be captured and brought back to Vejiita-sei, and no one save himself and his other son, Radditzu, had been allowed to see them, outside of the Royal family. Therefore, no DNA samples.
When Vejii learned the story of Kakarotto, he had sent dozens of squads out to search the galaxy for the SuperSaiya-jinn, determined to learn his secret. He even upped his own training regiment, but was unable to do so by much because of his duties as King.
All that ever came back were vague reports of a golden-haired Saiya-jinn that stayed in space-ports or crumby hotels when he could find them for a few days before moving on to an unknown destination. There were uncertain and vague stories of him adopting abandoned human/sayain children.
The last confirmed sighting was almost five years ago, and so Vejii had all but given up. He recalled all but one of the squads to Vejiita-sei, and left the last one with standing orders to track down and bring back Kakarotto... alive.
I think Vejii nearly forgot about Kakarotto over the years, but sometimes I would still find him out in the garden, screaming up at the night sky, "WHY HIM!?"
***
After the horrible stomach cramps came the constant bruises.
The kid WAS a Saiya-jinn, after all, and like all Saiya-jinn he was fighter and he felt the need to train.... inside of ME.
I just wish he could have waited until he was out of my womb. Might have been easier for me.
As it was, I spent a lot of time in bed, my arms wrapped around my middle, fighting not to scream or sob. Rurutip grew very worried when this began, afraid that I would be injured by the child inside of me doing metaphorical backflips and roundhouse kicks.
My spine was entirely too close to the child for Ru's liking, but the medical technicians said that the kid was staying away from that area, almost as if by instinct. They found that interesting, and tested it throughly. And let me assure you now, nothing they did hurt either me or my child.
Vejii would have turned them inside out if they did, and Ru would have then turned them back right-side in.
Saiyan women usually didn't carry their young much longer than two of their six month gestation period. Then the offspring were removed from the womb and 'grown' in cold, sterile tubes in a lab, or sort of grand nursery. However, I didn't want my child to go through that, and so had fought to carry him or her myself.
At first the technicians, when I had reached the two-month stage, actually CAME INTO Ru's room to forcefully DRAG me back to the lab and extract the fetus. I screamed the entire way, kicking and biting where I could, but in the end it was Vejii's complaint of the noise I made that stopped them from going through with it.
I was grateful to him like I hadn't been in years and wept at his feet until Rurutip was summoned to collect me.
As the baby got older, and more fully developed, actual bruises appeared on the outside of my belly. Again Ru was concerned, and wanted me to go into a regen tank every once and a while to clear them up, but I feared what it would do to the baby, and so refused.
I therefore spent many a day moaning in bed, just counting off the days on my fingers. "Three more months... two more months... one more month.... one more week... oh, gawd!"
The estimated date of birth for the child was, according to our Julius Calender, exactly seven months and three days after conception: November 27th.
My child was going to be a Sagittarius. He was going to yearn for adventure and new heights constantly. But at least he would always know where home was.
I don't know how well that was going to sit between Ru and I. I was a Libra, the peace maker, the analyser, and (if he hadn't been lying) I had deduced that he was a Scorpio, deep but controlling. And how do you control someone who constantly seeks new horizons?
It's not like I was all into the whole astrological thing, you know. It's just that I found it fascinating that these things were always so close to being right. I was Libra through and through.
So, the day my baby was born -the exact day predicted- the bruising and vomiting and cramps were at their worst. I vaguely recall wondering if Kakarotto's human mate had suffered as much as this for Gohan.
I remember waking up that morning, groaning horribly. I think Ru shook me awake. He'd been real antsy the last five or six weeks because I'd been so sick that it was ill-advised that we had sex. I suppose he really missed it. I didn't. I never wanted him on top of me again, just in case he tried to pull another disaster like this.
So, when I was moaning and sweating in my sleep, more so than usual, he shook me back to consciousness, and I was moderately gratified to see genuine worry writ on his face.
"Mayra!" He hissed,"What's wrong!"
"I think he's trying to rip me apart," I moaned.
He scooped me up and ushered me into the birthing area of the med labs. This place was usually only used for Royal births because only the Prince's mother carried her child to full term. But, because it was the only "maternity" area on the whole bloody planet, Vejii had agreed to let me give birth there.
And GAWD, was I happy he did! Pain-killers are wonderful things, really. Not that a Saiya-jinn would bother with them, but for me, they were heaven-sent.
I lost track of the hours; I lost track of the pain. I sort of just shut down.
And when the med technicians finally held the screaming child in front of my sweat-beaded face I gently smiled and proceeded to pass out.
***
At the same time, back on Chikyuu-sei, a young woman was also giving birth to a half-breed Saiya-jinn. Unfortunately, she was not as lucky as I, and had no doctors to attend her.
She died giving her wailing daughter life in a squalid inner-city alley.
Only a few steps away the Saiya-jinn father who had refused to aide her finally sat up to wrinkle his aristocratic nose at the stench of a new corpse and fetal blood. He stepped up to lift the tiny, venerable babe by her tender tail.
The baby SCREAMED.
"Oh, DO shut the fuck up." The father said and proceeded to rip his daughter's head off.
For a moment he stared at the bright blood pooling on the alley floor. "Damn girl." He snorted. "Who needs a fucking female?" He tossed first the child's head to one side, then the body to the other.
With a contemplative stroke of his waxed mustachio, the tall, almost painfully slim Saiyan turned his glittering onyx eyes back to the stiffening corpse of his latest conquest.
Oh, how lovely she had been! Humans were such wonderfully pathetic things when they were pregnant with Saiya-jinn children. The pain that contorted her attractive features had been no less than breathtaking to him.
A pity the children were never any good. Damn weakling halfling brats. He'd had to kill so many... they were just so weak.
With a small smile he headed towards the corpse of the mother, lust evident on his face. Just because she was dead didn't mean she couldn't provide him with a little amusement.
But before he could reach the body, a golden flash cut him off. He turned his eyes to glare with furious indignation at the figure on a nearby roof-top that had thrown the ki in his way.
"Leave her alone!" the other Saiya-jinn shouted in outrage, "You've done enough, Epinard! I'm going to stop you once and for all!"
Epinard paused for a moment, then threw back his head, his slicked-back hair bouncing in it's braid with his laughter. "You?! You've had your chance, traitor!" he spat. "And you did not kill me! You could not! You're far too WEAK!"
The other Saiyan snarled furiously, his hair whipping up and bleaching blond. "Stop, Epinard! Or this time I will not hesitate to kill you!" One furious emerald eye glared at the other Saiya-jinn. Th remains of his other eye was trapped behind an eyepatch that this same foe had given him years ago.
"Tell me another fairy story, oh great Super-Saiya-jinn!" Epinard returned mockingly, a malicious grin on his slim face.
With that he took off into the sky and was gone. His adversary didn't have the heart to chase him down today.
The Saiya-jinn on the roof top sighed, the golden aura fading from his body, his tail tightening marginally around his waist with his anxiety. He had purposefully grown his tail back years ago, so he could be stronger; so he could slip unnoticed among the ranks of the other Saiyans that moved about the galaxy.
A little girl came forward from the shadows, no more than twelve, her Saiya-jinn heritage apparent by her own tail, her human side revealed in her sparkling green eyes and long, flowing teal hair. She tugged on the man's loose, sleeve-less, black gi.
The man placed a tender had on the top of her head. "Hai, Aleta-chan?"
"Is the baby gone?"
The man sighed, heart-broken. "Hai, we were too late."
"Oh." the little girl said, the eldest of his haphazard adoptive brood. "Then the next one, right Gokuu-sensei? We'll save the next one."
"Hai." Gokuu said, turning his visible now-black eye to the sky. "We'll save the next one."
***
I did not know that poor woman, nor her child.
But I was soon enough to meet Epinard... and become re-acquainted with his rival.
***
When I awoke in Ru's rooms once again, the painkillers having worn off and the tell-tale reek of regen-gel about me, I heard the desperate screams of a starving Saiya-jinn child in the next room.
I recognized the sound, the particular pitch of it, from when Vejii had been a child, and I ached to console the baby.
Stiffly I rose, dressed, and peeked my head out into the sitting room. Rurutip sat cross-legged on the floor, the baby -who, remarkably, could already sit up by himself- was wailing in the small space Ru's legs created, pulling on his father's tail with a hungry urgency.
Ru only stared at the child as if unsure what to do with it. He hadn't even put clothes on the kid yet.
With a soft smile, and a small snort of amusement, I lifted a towel from the rack by the bedroom door and knelt in front of Ru, wrapping the goose-bumped child in it and noticing happily that it was a boy.
I had a son!
"Don't coddle him," Ru snarled. "He'll grow dependant and weak."
"I've raised a Saiyan before." I said back, unaffected by his curt tone, "Remember? And Vejii turned out pretty well."
"Hn." Ru snorted. "The King still reads too much."
I bared a breast to feed my boy, and saw Ru stare at it, like he was jealous that the boy was getting what HE wanted.
"Later." I murmured, and he seemed satisfied with that promise. "What have you named him?"
"I did not." Ru said haughtily. "I cannot think of a suitable name."
I mulled this over before suggesting a few very Chikyuu-jinn names that had been my favourites: Nicholas, James, Alexander... the list went on and Ru proclaimed them all to be unfit. I delved into other languages, into history: Titus, Frollo, Ceaser. He gainsaid them all.
"Then, Kado." I said finally and he paused to blink at me.
"What does it mean?"
" 'The Gateway.' "
Ru thought for a moment, tail twitching, thumping rhythmically against the carpet. Then he said, "It seems appropriate. Kado."
The child in my arms paused in his feeding only long enough to gurgle his approval.
***
I did not know it, but as Rurutip and Kado and I were enjoying our first 'family' time together, Epinard had returned to Vejiita-sei. When the rumours of a First-Class warrior had bred with a HUMAN met his ears, he was intrigued and decided that he wanted to have a little fun with this -with MY- newfound happiness.
However, as soon as he was recognized, his squad was sent to Ieart-sei to get rid of the damned Royal family. That princess just wouldn't leave Vejii alone, and his normally smooth patience had frayed.
Epinard, after that, was sent to a particularly far planet for collecting, and so was not to return to Vejiita-sei for another thirteen years.
Nor was his arch rival, or his small brood of rescued Saiya-jinn/Chikyuu-jinn half-breeds. They were too busy trying to give every child they found a peaceful and happy existence.
I am sad to say that there were a lot of human/Saiyan hybrids. Though Saiya-jinn men can control their fertility, HUMAN men cannot, and there were a great many accidents. It pissed the Saiya-jinn females off to get pregnant, and the fetus' were often destroyed.
If any lived to see the light of day they were slaughtered or abandoned to death wherever they had been birthed.
Gokuu and his 'children' saved those that they could and gave them a family.
And for the next thirteen years, as Gokuu and Epinard fought their ding-dong battles across the galaxy, the former never screwing up the courage to kill the latter, a few select children of the Earth Saiyan's brood were training.
They were determined that one day they were going to find a way to convince Vejii that the Saiya-jinn empire would be better off to fight for peace rather than gain.
And in the meantime, my son, Kado, was growing up.
***
Kado brushed the sweat-heavy mousey brown bangs from his eyes and began his katas all over again, his concentration broken by my humming in the next room over.
"Okassan!" he bawled, as rude as his father. "Shut up! I can't THINK and father wants me to know these katas by sundown!"
"Now, Kado-kun." I answered softly, my voice wafting in from where I was trying to compose a new song, "What do civilized people say when they want something?"
"Please." he reluctantly ground out, sparkling amber eyes narrowed hatefully.
"Much better." I responded, glad at least THAT had stuck in his thirteen-year old mind. Sometimes, I swear, it was like pulling teeth. But I stayed quiet for him nonetheless.
He resumed his katas, and I resumed my writing, until he grew too tired and crawled up onto the chair beside me, his tail wagging. "Watcha doin'?"
"Writing a new song."
"Again?"
"Hai."
Kado smiled and puffed out his little chest. "I don't need to sing for the king to recognize me! I'll fight like Otousan!"
"Yes, I know." I answered back, pretending not to be hurt by his callous words. We both knew it was his fate to murder his father one day and take his place as a royal guard. I was just glad that day was still years off. "But Vejiita-sama already recognizes you, Kado."
My son puffed out even more. He was the only child ever to have sparred with the King – and been able to keep up with him. Vejii however was still far to agile and intelligent a fighter for the brute strength Kado employed to work.
But, Kado was STRONG; stronger than he should have been with my weak blood in him, and he was well on the fast-track to becoming an Elite. For that, and for his unwavering determination, I was proud of him.
My son was never arrogant. He was intelligent, and educated, and -when you got him away from his first passion, sparring- he was an avid reader. Once you put a Dickens novel in his hand, you'd never see him again until he was done it.
"Okassan, I'm going to see Aurek-san." He said matter-of-factly, hopping down from the chair and heading towards the door. He didn't need to ask permission from me (after all, I was still only a slave and he was considered under the law a full-blooded Saiya-jinn so I had to obey his orders, even though I was his mother) but I liked to know where he was nonetheless.
"Okay." I said softly and bowed my head once more to the sheet music before me. "Be home for dinner."
"I'd never miss food!" Kado said brightly, and in a flash of ki was gone.
I sighed after my little boy (little, what am I saying, 'little'?! He was five and a half feet tall already!), and smiled.
***
A lone space pod tumbled back to ground and when it had safely landed, a painfully slim Saiya-jinn emerged.
"Welcome back, Captain Epinard." A nearby guard said, saluting, but the man ignored him.
Laughter broke the silence and two young boys, one obviously Saiya-jinn, though oddly light-hued in hair and eyes, and another, an elfin boy with large pointed ears and big black eyes, raced by, the former attempting to catch the latter.
Epinard glared at them hatefully and went about his business.
And not far behind him, Gokuu's own space pod raced to catch up before it was too late.
In their last battle, Epinard had let something slip about a surviving Saiya-jinn/Chikyuu-jinn hybrid on Vejiita-sei that he had meant to destroy thirteen years earlier.
Gokuu - his determination evident in a scowl so much like his father's that, had he not been sporting an eyepatch, he would have been mistaken for Bardock - only prayed to a Kami he'd nearly given up on that he wasn't too late.
***
Aurek was a species known as the Piux-jinn. They are generally short as a rule, with large pointy ears, big black, almond shaped eyes, green-hued skin and flowing blond hair. They were a very friendly people, and adapted well to any situation.
The Piux-jinn had been slaves of the Saiya-jinn empire much longer than Chikyuu's twenty nine years. So long that Aurek's grandparents had been born slaves.
Aurek and Kado met when my son was about ten, and they'd been inseparable friends ever since, for although the Piux-jinn were lithe gangly creatures, they could move FAST, and Kado, in his younger years, had made it a game to try to catch Aurek.
At first, Kado would grow angry when he could not catch up to the Piux-jinn, and sometimes beat him if he ever caught him, but Aurek showed him a few speed-secrets, and the boys fast became best buds.
They were never apart for more than a day.
***
The next morning I sat up lazily, waking Ru, who'd had his arms wrapped around my middle.
He snarled softly at me, then went back to sleep. "Baka no Onna." he muttered.
I smiled and got up, opening the curtains. He groaned and hid his shaggy head under a pillow.
"Ru-kun, you have to go greet the collecting crew that arrived last night, have you forgotten?"
"Damn." I heard him curse, then he pulled himself to his feet. "Come, bathe with me."
I nodded slowly and followed him to the bathroom, glancing around to make sure Kado had already left for his early-morning spar with Vejii. He had.
An evil smile spread across my lips, and I jumped on Ru's back.
***
Epinard looked around the King's main audience chambers with an air of boredom. He tugged on his pencil mustache briefly, pondering.
Around here, somewhere, would be the half-ling brat of the unnamed warrior and his Chikyuu-jinn bitch. It was just a matter of finding out which warrior had been dumb enough to first impregnate and then KEEP the child, and kill him - or at least get him out of the way, if he was a higher form of Elite than Epinard himself. That way, there'd be a human bitch to impregnate and play with (one whom he knew it would take on) and a brat to experiment with.
And, Oh! To have a fully-trained demi-Saiya-jinn! How amusing it would be to rip the little thing to pieces!
And there wouldn't be anything that that damned Kakarotto could do about it.
Epinard frowned briefly.
Damn that Kakarotto. How dare he call himself SuperSaiyan? He wasn't even a true SAIYAN, let alone the super variety.
Kakarotto had hesitated to KILL.
More than once, if Epinard had been keeping count correctly. Almost ... was the number nearing fifty now? Kakarotto had had the opportunity to destroy him more than once, and each time he could not bring himself to do it, and so Epinard had escaped.
Damn, fifty times Kakarotto had won, and the only damage he'd done to show for his continued survival and honour Epinard had was three sets of scars and an eyepatch. He had managed to gouge out Kakarotto's right eye a few years back... then there was the strange star-shaped scar on his left cheek and the slash over his collar bone.
The collar bone scar was from the time Epinard had tried to rip Kakarotto's treacherous heart from his chest. He had actually felt it his fingers on it before Kakarot had pulled away! The one on his cheek Epinard had made during their first battle after some blue-haired human bitch's death. He had done it to spite Kakarotto, to remind him forever of where he came from by giving him a scar identical to Bardock's.
Oh, yes, and the parallel scars that Epinard had scraped out of the flesh of Kakarotto's left arm, too. That had been... those were sword scars, weren't they?
Epinard's frown grew deeper.
Next time, however... next time he might not be so lucky. Kakarotto had come awfully close to doing it last time, and Epinard now had -thanks to his trip to the regen tanks- a very large, very itchy scar on his formally flawless chest.
Damn that Kakarotto!
He wasn't sure what irked him more, the fact that a traitor like Kakarotto was the Legendary SuperSaiya-jinn... or that his beautiful chest had been marred!
Turning his thoughts away from his rival, Epinard stood at attention when the King and his personal entourage entered the room.
Rurutip - the captain of the Royal Guard- stood at the foot of the dias, and the King took the throne, that bitch with the voice standing off to one side and the rest of his followers with her.
Sighing inwardly, Epinard stepped forward to list off the quantities of each of the resources he'd collected on his last outbound trip, starting with the slaves.
***
I watched with half-boredom, half-pity as Epinard's crew boasted about their 'collecting'. The slaves I felt very sorry for, but they couldn't have been coming into a better system.
At least here they'd still be treated like people. I'd heard of other places where they're treated much worse. I know that sounds callous of me, but I live in a world where slavery is legal - and there are far worse places to be in this universe than Vejiita-sei.
When they were finished, the King dismissed them, and they stood to the side as a few other squads had their chances to boast. Then we were all dismissed.
Epinard had been staring at me oddly the whole time we had been in the main audience chamber - not that that was too odd, a lot of people stared. But his eyes kept darting back and forth between me, Rurutip, and Kado, who was standing off to one side with me.
He had come skittering in the room, breathless, after Epinard's presentation to stand as close the King as decorum allowed. He had really wanted to see this (even if he was a little late), and Vejii was always happy to show him the ropes of ruling.
I had a suspicion that Vejii would have liked to have made Kado the next in line because of his obvious intelligence, politeness, and eagerness to fight, but it was not allowed. Besides, having to deal with the fact that Kado would one day kill Ru was hard enough on me, but to think that he might kill Vejii too...!
Epinard looked at me again, and I accidentally locked eyes with him. A dark smile spread over his sharp face and I shuddered for some unknown reason. I suddenly decided that I did not like this man...
... and then he stepped over to Rurutip and they began to speak.
***
I really was uncomfortable in Epinard's private chambers, but with Ru on one side of me, his tail wrapped around my hips in a clear gesture that screamed 'MINE' and Kado glaring at Epinard through his long, brushed-forward bangs, I felt much safer than I would alone.
I ate in silence.
Epinard continued to prattle on, waxing elegant on how delightful it was to be able to host the leader of the Squads and a Royal Elite at his table.
And yet, every once and a while, I felt those cold, cold eyes turn to me; more than once I almost choked.
Rurutip seemed oblivious to the silent aura of menace that Epinard seemed to ooze, but I felt it, and so too did Kado, for he and I exchanged glances on more than one occasion over the course of the evening.
Epinard was planning something nasty, but for the life of me, I did not know what.
***
END PART ONE