Part Three: "Aleta"
***
When Rurutip got back to Vejiita-sei that evening, I blurted out the whole story to him.
Kado had returned that afternoon with Kakarotto -no, GOKUU- at his side. He seemed more himself now; there was a soul behind his eyes once more. Gokuu calmly explained to me that Kado had become a SuperSaiyan because of what he had seen being done to me, and because what had happened to Aurek.
Rage releases the SuperSaiyan.
It had been that rage that had been controlling Kado when he had begun to scratch. After I passed out, Kado blindly had tried to destroy Gokuu too, so the elder Saiyan had been forced to drag Kado out into the forest and try to calm him down.
I wondered how it was that a child of such impure blood could be strong enough to be a SuperSaiyan, and Gokuu said that often half-breeds were STRONGER than regular Saiyans, but that no one around here had given them the chance to grow up so they could realize this.
As if to prove this, Gokuu had called his adoptive daughter, a demi-Saiyan named Aleta to come to Vejiita-sei. She was to land just before evening fell that day.
Gokuu himself had known this for years. He had been raising abandoned halflings for nearly two decades.
Rurutip and Vejii both did not believe me when I told them that my Kado had become a SuperSaiyan right in front of my eyes. I protested, and Vejii reluctantly decided that if Kado really were a SuperSaiyan, he'd have to prove it.
We were to meet in secret at the sparring arena on the far side of town before sunset to prove it.
It was in secret because Vejii didn't want anyone else to watch Kado turn into a SuperSaiya-jinn before he did, if I was right - which, in his mind, I was.
Rurutip brought Kado and I, and Gokuu showed up at Kado's request. My son was very nervous, and he feared that he wouldn't able to do it again; he was afraid the King would think him a liar.
He stood on the edge of the ring, waiting for Vejiita to arrive, running his toe through the dust nervously like a little child, and not like the mature and sure thirteen year old he was.
When Vejii arrived, he fell into a fighting pose and told Kado to fight him.
The battle didn't last long. Kado was too unnerved and drained by his earlier experience to think properly, and the King had his face in the dirt soon enough.
"You are no SuperSaiya-jinn!" Vejii crowed, almost as if in relief. "Train harder, Kado. You fought badly."
"Hai, wagakimi." Kado coughed into the dust, and Vejii let him up. My son returned to the side of the ring, his armour and face smudged with dirt.
"Brat!" Rurutip snarled. "You can fight better than THAT!"
"Gomen nasai, Otousan." Kado said meekly, amber eyes covered by his heavy bangs. "I was afraid that I WOULD turn into a SuperSaiyan and hurt the King."
"Idiot!" Ru cursed, and I moved to stay his tongue, but he pushed me away. "No, woman! This is a lesson he MUST learn."
Rurutip dragged Kado back into the ring and threw him to the ground. "Get up and fight me!"
Vejii backed off, an amused look on his face as I clung to Gokuu, unsure of what was about to happen and terrified that someone was going to be seriously injured.
Kado did not move. "I don't want to hurt you," he said gravely.
"Fight me, baka!" Rurutip kicked Kado hard in the ribs and even I heard the snapping sound. Kado coughed and blood speckled his lips.
"No." Kado said, struggling to his feet. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Fight me!" Rurutip yelled and punched Kado square on the nose.
I screamed. "Rurutip, no!" But Vejii told me to shut the hell up and stay out of it.
"This is THEIR fight, Maria." He said, staring intently at the two Saiyans in the ring. He folded his arms across his chest. "The time has come for them."
"No," I breathed in horror, "You don't mean...? It's too soon!" I wailed. "It's too soon!" I tired to run to Rurutip, to stop this, but Gokuu held me back. He too knew that nothing any of us could do would stop this now.
One of them was going to die today.
Rurutip snarled obscenities at Kado, and finally my son lost his temper. He dug his feet into the ground and screamed, his ki flickering to life around him. Ru smiled and followed suit.
But something was wrong, Kado was not stopping where he ought to have. I could still hear Ru's scouter beeping long after Rurutip had finished powering up.
There was a high pitched warning beep, and the scouter proceeded to explode.
Rurutip snapped his head away from the small explosion and turned with wide eyes to his son.
There was a final, guttural scream, and then Kado's aura exploded into gold shimmers of arcing power.
My son had just become a SuperSaiyan.
***
Vejii's jaw dropped to his knees. "No!" he wailed, "How can this be!? NO!"
Rurutip was screaming things along the same lines as Kado launched at him, kicking and punching wildly.
The fight wasn't long, but it was bloody. It ended with Rurutip on the ground, panting heavily, his nose smashed and an arm broken, and Kado standing above him, the final ki sphere prepared.
"No!" I screamed, but neither moved from their grisly tableau. "Kado, please, don't kill him!"
I felt the air around me tingle, and suddenly Gokuu was gone. He appeared in a blur of speed beside Kado.
"Don't." he whispered, and Kado looked up at him.
"I have to. It's the rules. I won, so I have to destroy my father."
"No, you don't." Gokuu said, more serious than I have ever seen him before.
"You have won, boy!" Ru snarled at Kado, yanking his attention off of Gokuu, and Kado took a few hasty steps back, his free hand over his heart as if he were trying to keep it in his chest. "So kill me! It is your duty!"
"But, Otousan..." Kado said softly, his ki sphere dissipating as he lowered his arm. "I don't want to."
"Don't be weak!" Rurutip shouted and I cringed, covering my ears. Ru purposefully rose to his knees and bared his chest to Kado. "You MUST! Don't shame me, brat!"
"Shut-up Rurutip!" I finally snapped, unable to bare the horrible thought of losing him any longer, tears brimming in my eyes. I ran over and grabbed his arm tightly, so tightly I was absurdly afraid my nails would cut his skin.
"But–!" he began, eyes still screwed shut. I fell to the arena floor beside him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
"No! Gokuu's right! For once in your life, please, don't be stubborn!" He opened his eyes and turned to stare at me with disbelief. "Rurutip, please. You don't have to die. Kado doesn't HAVE to kill you."
"I don't?" Kado said, amber eyes darting to Vejii, the expression therein halfway between happiness and confusion.
Gokuu took it upon himself to answer, one hand resting lightly on my son's shoulder. "No, you don't, Kado-san. Where I am from, everyone, no matter their age, is valuable. Just because you are stronger than your father, that doesn't mean he isn't useful anymore. He is an intelligent fighter, I saw as much. There is still much he could teach you – teach all of us, actually. There was a move in there that I'd really like to learn."
Kado looked to Vejii, his brother figure, for confirmation.
"Whatever!" Vejii threw up his hands and turned his back on our gathering, seething. "YOU'RE the SuperSaiya-jinn, Kakarotto. What you say goes! If you want to destroy a millennia old tradition, I cannot stop you!"
With a growl of fury, Vejii flew from the sparring arena. I was sorely tempted to go after him, but didn't want to leave Ru.
"Go on," Gokuu said softly, having read my expression, "Make sure he's alright. I'll look after Rurutip and Kado."
"Arigato." I whispered in return, then turned to Ru, and pressed my lips to his. "I love you," I said. "I could never watch you die. It would kill me."
There was a small awkward pause, then Ru lifted his whole arm, not the one that was hanging limply by his side, and pulled me forward for another, more passionate kiss.
It lasted far longer, and Kado actually turned away.
When we pulled our mouths apart, Rurutip sneered. "Bitch."
***
I found Vejii in his rooms, stalking back and forth, smashing everything he could get his hands on against the wall.
I ducked almost foolishly as a vase shattered next to the door when I entered and I squeaked. He heard me and turned to face me, his expression livid.
"This is all your fault!" he snarled and came forward to grab my arm and drag me in. I didn't resist, knowing he was in a fury and fighting would only make him madder. He yanked me into his face as he raged. "All this! My kingdom is no longer mine! I am no longer the strongest! I do not rule; Kakarotto does, and your bastard son! THEY are the SuperSaiyans, not I!"
"Vejii, please, calm down..." I whispered, and in response he hurled me onto the bed. I rolled along it and hit my head on the wall, but not enough to make me anything more than breathless.
"Shut up! You've caused enough trouble with your senseless words!" He yanked the royal pendant off from around his neck, the beads of the necklace spilling onto the floor. "This! THIS! It's MEANINGLESS!"
"Vejii..." I said calmly sitting up, swaying only slightly.
He stared at me, eyes wide and jaw slack in wonder. The pendant slid from his fist to thump pathetically against the carpet. Vejii soon followed, all of his weight slamming violently down onto his knees. He bent over them, the heels of his hands pressed against his eyes like a small child.
After a few moments I realized that the tremors that played along his strained back and the hiccuping sounds he was making were not anger, they were SOBS. Vejii was wailing with more sorrow than I have heard in anyone in my entire life.
"Oh, Vejiita..." I said softly and slid off the bed to hold my little King.
He squeezed back, afraid that if I let him go, he'd be alone forever.
"I didn't h-have t-to ..." he wailed as he pressed his face into my neck, his hot tears spilling onto my shoulder. "I d-didn't h-have to k-kill Ot-tousaaaaaaan......."
"I know, Vejii," I whispered, rocking him back and forth in my embrace. "I know."
***
As this was happening, Aleta had arrived on Vejiita-sei and was waiting in the Royal Gardens outside of the palace, watching the sky turn from rose to crimson in the bleeding daylight as she waited for Gokuu to come and collect her.
When she heard Vejii's muffled sobs coming from his open window, she sought out the sound, found it, and peered in.
She recognized Vejii as the King of Vejiita-sei - a man she had come to hate without ever meeting before. She despised him for letting so many soldiers run wild all over the empire and create the kind of misery that she had endured: that which came from the knowledge that one was a bastard child conceived during a rape.
But what she saw made her heart wrench like she never thought it would for the arrogant asshole-Prince.
"So, he can feel after all..." she muttered to herself, and turned away, deciding to seek out Gokuu herself.
***
When Vejii came back to himself, the anger returned.
He demanded that Gokuu and this bastard child of his be brought to his meeting room immediately, and his face was so red as he barked out these orders that I feared for his sanity.
I had never before seen him so upset.
Gokuu arrived, smiling happily, tail wagging, chatting absent mindedly with the guard. Aleta - a lovely young lady with long silky blue-green hair pulled up into a ponytail and a long thin tail of the same shade - was less than thrilled, and it was obvious by her narrowed green eyes. She was acting as if the King held them both prisoner.
In a way, he was. There was no way they'd ever get off Vejiita-sei now without his permission. Or no, Gokuu, I'm sure, could have blasted his way off-world as a SuperSaiyan, so what I mean is: there'd be no way for them to leave the planet PEACEFULLY.
Rurutip and Kado had arrived shortly before that at my request, and Rurutip had explained to Vejii the details of the situation in which Gokuu - formerly known as Kakarotto - and I had first met, and how he had been forced into being a SuperSaiyan and killing Freiza.
He neglected to mention that Gohan had been murdered by the afore mentioned monster and I made sure to correct this oversight.
Vejii absorbed all of this -so too did Kado, I noticed- and was considerably more calm by the time Gokuu and Aleta entered the room.
Vejii graciously offered them seats on the couches around the low table in the centre of the room, and Gokuu said "Sure!" and plopped down. This was not the determined and abused man I remembered meeting so many years earlier; he had changed. He had become more carefree and loving. He was so... OPEN.
Of course, it could also be the fact that this time, his life was not threatened, nor that of his child. At least, not to him, it wasn't. But the silent menace in the room was more than obvious to everyone BUT him.
Aleta, on the other hand, was very guarded and declined to sit, which offended Vejii greatly.
I saw it from my seat next to Rurutip, and whispered up at her, "Perhaps you should sit, my dear."
She blinked down at me, arms crossed over her chest, and said far too loudly "Why should I? Just because this jerk says so?" Vejii visibly bristled, his teeth bared, and I nearly choked on my teeth. "He's not MY King."
"I am so." Vejii snapped, rising to his own feet. "I rule EVERYONE in this galaxy."
"Not me," Aleta sneered, turning her back to him in a glaringly obvious gesture of disrespect. "I was left to DIE by you and your Empire! My mother was MURDERED by one of your soldiers. I don't consider myself a part of the Saiya-jinn race! I am a human!"
Vejii snarled. "Then you are not my subject but my SLAVE! And I order you to SIT!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
I whined and clapped my hands over my ears, knowing that Vejii was going to beat the shit out of her any second now.
"Oi, Aleta-chan." Gokuu smiled and tugged on her belt. "These chairs are comfy. Sit beside me."
Vejii and Aleta both turned to the older Saiyan and I marvelled at how well he had diffused the potentially lethal situation with such ease as Aleta took a seat beside him.
"Okay, Gokuu-san." She pouted, glaring pointedly at Vejii. "But only because you asked me to."
The king fumed silently and sat in his own individual chair, arms crossed and a furious scowl on his face.
Gokuu then looked around and said, "This is a nice place, Vejiita. Don't you think so, honey?"
He turned to Aleta, who only thinned her lips slightly in response. Vejii snapped, "You will refer to me as Vejiita-SAMA, you low class bastard."
"Sure." Gokuu shrugged, then turned his eyes to me. "Hey, I remember you now. You're that girl from when I turned SuperSaiyan that first time."
I blushed and nodded slowly, feeling Rurutip growl. I shot him a look that said to shut up and don't be jealous.
Suddenly serious, Gokuu leaned forward and said, " I never got a chance to say this before: Thank you for looking after Gohan."
Tears suddenly stung the backs of my eyes, but I blinked them away, refusing to cry in front of Kado. "You're welcome," I rasped.
"Enough!" Vejii snarled. I did not bring you here to blabber about stupid little things!"
Gokuu, un-offended that Vejii had called his son's death a 'stupid little thing', turned his attention to the king.
Vejii slammed a fist down on his own knee. "Kakarotto, you will teach me to be a SuperSaiyan, is that understood!? I demand that you reveal all your secrets to me!"
Aleta immediately jumped to her feet. "You can't tell him what to do like that!"
"Yes, I can!" Vejiita snarled in response, once again leaping up so he was eye level with the demi-Saiyan female before him. "I am the King! I can do whatever I want!"
"Oh, yeah, hot shit?!" She snarled and I yelped.
Vejii curled his hands into fists and threw one towards Aleta. Gokuu ducked and yelled, "Yeah! Show him how good you are, Aleta!"
Rurutip smirked as I screamed and said, "Shut up, Ningen. Let the King beat respect into her. She'll learn." Kado only nodded in agreement.
Aleta dodged the punch and flipped through the air out of his reach. Vejii followed her, furious, and attacked.
They began to move at speeds too fast for me to follow, although I could tell where they were by what broke and when.
It seemed forever, but it must have only been a few minutes before there was a loud cracking sound and I saw Aleta slam into the wall behind me and slump to the floor, blood on her face.
Vejii appeared before her, no less beat up, but still standing at least. I wanted to stop the fight, but as I began to move, Rurutip wrapped his tail around my wrist and hissed, indicating that I was to stay out of it.
Gokuu didn't look as concerned as I thought he should. He merely sat back on the couch, his arms thrown over the backing, a silly grin on his face. As if he knew that Vejii would not be able to harm Aleta seriously.
"You're not bad, bitch." Vejii panted down at his vanquished opponent, and she stirred briefly, not looking up. "I want to fight you again. You will meet me in my Royal Sparring Room at day break, you understand me?"
She said nothing, so he assumed it was a yes. Then he turned to Gokuu. "And you. You will stay in the palace and teach me your secrets. All of them. I WILL be a SuperSaiya-jinn."
Gokuu shrugged, and grinned. "I've never stayed in a palace before. Is the food good?"
Vejii smirked his most amused and toothy grin. "The best in the universe."
"That's great." the elder Saiyan smiled and got to his feet, leaning over the table to clap Vejii on the back. Rurutip tensed and Kado's eyes went wide.
NO ONE touched the King without permission!
"See ya in the morning, Vejiita!" Gokuu then grinned and went over to where Aleta was still on the floor. He picked her up and strolled out of the room.
"Vejiita-SAMA!" Vejii screeched after them, a vein protruding on his forehead.
***
After bidding my King a hasty good-night, I told Rurutip I'd meet him back in our rooms and ran after Gokuu.
I told him where the Regeneration Tanks were, and he thanked me, taking Aleta there.
I stared after him with disbelief and shook my head slowly. "You two are going to get yourselves killed."
***
"She's arrogant! Insolent! Rude!" Vejii screamed as he paced back and forth in his chambers, and I sat on the edge of his bed with a sympathetic look on my face. "She acts as if SHE is the superior and deliberately rubs her knowledge of technology in my face!" he turned to me abruptly with a snarl. "Maria! She's a snobby, know-it-all BITCH!"
"I TOLD you you wouldn't like sparring with her." I said softly. "Vejii, you know what Aleta thinks of you. She's made it more than clear. Why do you suffer through her insults?"
He said nothing and I tried to probe for more information. He had been sparring daily with Aleta for almost two weeks now, and each day he came away from their fights with more anger than the day before. It had actually begun to affect his decisions as a King, and I had taken it upon myself to try to calm him down – if I could actually figure out what the problem was.
"Vejii, she can't be that good a fighter. I don't see how your spars could help improve your technique at all. Why do you bother if you can't stand her?"
He stared at me hard with narrowed eyes then turned on his heel and marched towards the door. Just before he left he looked back over his shoulder and said. "Because she's pretty when she's mad."
I blinked and stared after him with huge eyes. Then I fell backwards onto his bed and began to laugh.
***
"I want to go off-world." Vejii announced, straightening from his defensive position to stare Gokuu in the eye.
Gokuu paused in his own katas and stared at the King. They'd been sparring for almost three months now, and Vejii had never mentioned something like this before.
"Why?" he asked, scratching his ear casually. "The food here is good."
"I don't CARE about the FOOD, baka!" Vejii snarled. "There is a planet at the outer rim of this Solar System with gravity ten times that of Vejiita-sei. I want to train there."
"Oh." Gokuu paused for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Sure, if you want to. Have fun, Vejii."
"Kakarotto!" Vejii snapped, tugging at his hair. "If you're going to disrespect me by using my familiar name, at LEAST use the WHOLE THING!"
"But," Gokuu sighed and sat down. "Maria calls you Vejii."
"That's different." Vejii snarled, then sat down himself, his brain more weary than his body. Gokuu was an idiot, plain and simple, and it was beginning to drive him nuts.
"I don't see how."
Vejiita sighed and stared up at the ceiling, deciding that he'd rather meditate than talk with the idiot SuperSaiyan.
"You're coming too," he said after a long while, and Gokuu sent him a puzzled glance.
"Coming where?"
"Training with me!" Vejii jumped to his feet and stalked over to Gokuu and hit him upside the head. "Are there no brains in that skull of yours!?"
"Um... yeah." Gokuu grinned, rubbing the sore spot. "But Bulma always said they're scrambled. Like eggs." He paused for a moment and licked his lips. "Chichi used to make the best scrambled eggs."
Vejii stared at Gokuu for a moment, then knelt in front of the elder Saiyan. It was rare that Gokuu ever spoke of his life before the Saiyans came to Earth, and Vejii was always a curious man, so he probed for more information about these 'Bulma' and 'Chichi' people.
"Who's Chichi?" He asked gruffly, moving into a lotus position.
Gokuu leaned back on his hands and closed his eyes. "She was my wife. She was... she was beautiful."
Vejii snorted. "A Chikyuu-jinn bitch, huh? Raddittzu told me you'd had a mate and brat."
"Don't talk about my wife like that!" Gokuu suddenly snapped, and Vejii blinked.
"Why are you so protective, baka? She's DEAD."
Gokuu's voice lowered dangerously and his one visible eye narrowed. "I love her, and I won't let anyone say bad things about my Chichi."
"Love." Vejii sneered, and he turned his face away, disturbed by the intense emotion found in Kakarotto's. "There's no such thing."
"Yes, there is." Gokuu whispered. "I loved Chichi with all my heart. And I loved my Gohan too. Sometimes..." he put is hand over his heart and his face twisted as if he was in the most excruciating physical pain imaginable. "I would have died, for them. I wish I had died. And then they could be alive."
Vejiita starred at Gokuu with a look of mild horror on his face. "You would have given your life for a bitch and a brat? You would have given up the chance to be a SuperSaiyan."
"That's what love is." Gokuu said simply. To him, there was no confusion in this. "When you care enough about someone to want to die to keep them from being hurt... that's what love is."
Vejiita looked down at his hands, which were resting limply in his lap. "...Love..." he whispered.
Gokuu slowly climbed to his feet and put a tender hand on Vejii's shoulder. "That's enough for today," he said and turned to walk away.
"Tell me more." Vejii demanded, climbing to his feet and Gokuu paused. "Tell me who Bulma was."
Gokuu shrugged. "She was my first friend. She was really smart, like Aleta is, with machines and stuff. She was Aleta's mom. I... miss her a lot."
Vejii stiffened. "So that's why that battle with Epinard was so personal. He killed your friend."
Gokuu only nodded.
"This... this love thing." Vejii said quietly. "How do you know when you're in love?"
Again, Gokuu only shrugged. "You .... just know, y'know?" Vejii shot him a puzzled glance, and Gokuu leaned back against the sparring-room wall, face scrunched in pure concentration. "Like, one day you see a girl and you think, 'Wow she's really nice and pretty and smart, and I really really like her...' Like, that's love, sorta."
"Oh." Vejiita whispered, then turned his back to Gokuu and moved to the windows at the far side of the room.
Gokuu took that as his cue to leave. But before he could make it to the door, Vejii called out once more: "Kakarotto?"
"Yeah?"
"You... loved Chichi?"
Gokuu sighed, "Yeah."
"And... does Maria love Rurutip?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Does.... do you think anyone will ever love me?"
Gokuu shrugged. "Wait and find out. I bet a nice girl will love you one day."
Silence met his reply and Gokuu exited the room. As the doors hissed shut behind him, Vejiita murmured, "Thank you.... Gokuu."
***
It took a few days for the preparations to be made for Gokuu and Vejiita's journey on their Training Hiatus, during which both realized that Kado ought to go with them, as a SuperSaiyan himself.
My son was thrilled beyond all reasoning, but upset that Aleta was not allowed to go too. They had become very good friends over the past three months.
Gokuu said that he did not want Aleta there with just the three guys. He insisted that Chichi had always said that "A real Lady does not stay with a bunch of smelly men all alone," and he had the firm belief that Aleta was a real lady.
Vejii said that he did not need the distraction of such a 'stupid, weakling bitch.'
Which, of course, meant, 'I wouldn't be able to think with her around.'
Just before they were to leave, I accosted Vejii in his chambers and said, "You have to promise me something."
"What?" he smirked.
"That you won't kill Gokuu once you become a SuperSaiyan."
"Stupid woman." Vejii's sneer softened a little, like it always did when I was around. "When I become a SuperSaiyan, I won't NEED to kill Kakarotto. I'll be far stronger than him, and I'll be able to whatever I want. He'll be useful to keep around. Imagine, my own band of SuperSaiyans."
"Hai." I whispered. "About that. Please, Vejii, the Empire has become a much nicer place since you took the throne. Please, don't hurt any more people with your new power."
He looked slightly aghast at my boldness, but his expression slid into sympathy when he saw the tears in my eyes.
"Maria. If this universe had stayed the way Freiza had it, people like you would have disappeared. And people like Kado and Kakarotto. Who knows had other sorts of treasures and knowledge I can attain by keeping the Empire peaceful?" he smiled down at me, one hand running down the side of my face with a soft gentleness. "I would not loose that for the chance to be tenfold more powerful than a SuperSaiyan."
I nodded, thanking him silently.
"Besides," he said, turning his back to me to finish packing up his last set of armour. "I would not have met my Mate."
"Mate?" I called after him, confused by his sudden announcement that he had found himself a warrioress suitable to be his wife. "Who? Vejii-chan!" I called out as he walked away from me.
"WHO!?"
***
END PART THREE
***
When Rurutip got back to Vejiita-sei that evening, I blurted out the whole story to him.
Kado had returned that afternoon with Kakarotto -no, GOKUU- at his side. He seemed more himself now; there was a soul behind his eyes once more. Gokuu calmly explained to me that Kado had become a SuperSaiyan because of what he had seen being done to me, and because what had happened to Aurek.
Rage releases the SuperSaiyan.
It had been that rage that had been controlling Kado when he had begun to scratch. After I passed out, Kado blindly had tried to destroy Gokuu too, so the elder Saiyan had been forced to drag Kado out into the forest and try to calm him down.
I wondered how it was that a child of such impure blood could be strong enough to be a SuperSaiyan, and Gokuu said that often half-breeds were STRONGER than regular Saiyans, but that no one around here had given them the chance to grow up so they could realize this.
As if to prove this, Gokuu had called his adoptive daughter, a demi-Saiyan named Aleta to come to Vejiita-sei. She was to land just before evening fell that day.
Gokuu himself had known this for years. He had been raising abandoned halflings for nearly two decades.
Rurutip and Vejii both did not believe me when I told them that my Kado had become a SuperSaiyan right in front of my eyes. I protested, and Vejii reluctantly decided that if Kado really were a SuperSaiyan, he'd have to prove it.
We were to meet in secret at the sparring arena on the far side of town before sunset to prove it.
It was in secret because Vejii didn't want anyone else to watch Kado turn into a SuperSaiya-jinn before he did, if I was right - which, in his mind, I was.
Rurutip brought Kado and I, and Gokuu showed up at Kado's request. My son was very nervous, and he feared that he wouldn't able to do it again; he was afraid the King would think him a liar.
He stood on the edge of the ring, waiting for Vejiita to arrive, running his toe through the dust nervously like a little child, and not like the mature and sure thirteen year old he was.
When Vejii arrived, he fell into a fighting pose and told Kado to fight him.
The battle didn't last long. Kado was too unnerved and drained by his earlier experience to think properly, and the King had his face in the dirt soon enough.
"You are no SuperSaiya-jinn!" Vejii crowed, almost as if in relief. "Train harder, Kado. You fought badly."
"Hai, wagakimi." Kado coughed into the dust, and Vejii let him up. My son returned to the side of the ring, his armour and face smudged with dirt.
"Brat!" Rurutip snarled. "You can fight better than THAT!"
"Gomen nasai, Otousan." Kado said meekly, amber eyes covered by his heavy bangs. "I was afraid that I WOULD turn into a SuperSaiyan and hurt the King."
"Idiot!" Ru cursed, and I moved to stay his tongue, but he pushed me away. "No, woman! This is a lesson he MUST learn."
Rurutip dragged Kado back into the ring and threw him to the ground. "Get up and fight me!"
Vejii backed off, an amused look on his face as I clung to Gokuu, unsure of what was about to happen and terrified that someone was going to be seriously injured.
Kado did not move. "I don't want to hurt you," he said gravely.
"Fight me, baka!" Rurutip kicked Kado hard in the ribs and even I heard the snapping sound. Kado coughed and blood speckled his lips.
"No." Kado said, struggling to his feet. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Fight me!" Rurutip yelled and punched Kado square on the nose.
I screamed. "Rurutip, no!" But Vejii told me to shut the hell up and stay out of it.
"This is THEIR fight, Maria." He said, staring intently at the two Saiyans in the ring. He folded his arms across his chest. "The time has come for them."
"No," I breathed in horror, "You don't mean...? It's too soon!" I wailed. "It's too soon!" I tired to run to Rurutip, to stop this, but Gokuu held me back. He too knew that nothing any of us could do would stop this now.
One of them was going to die today.
Rurutip snarled obscenities at Kado, and finally my son lost his temper. He dug his feet into the ground and screamed, his ki flickering to life around him. Ru smiled and followed suit.
But something was wrong, Kado was not stopping where he ought to have. I could still hear Ru's scouter beeping long after Rurutip had finished powering up.
There was a high pitched warning beep, and the scouter proceeded to explode.
Rurutip snapped his head away from the small explosion and turned with wide eyes to his son.
There was a final, guttural scream, and then Kado's aura exploded into gold shimmers of arcing power.
My son had just become a SuperSaiyan.
***
Vejii's jaw dropped to his knees. "No!" he wailed, "How can this be!? NO!"
Rurutip was screaming things along the same lines as Kado launched at him, kicking and punching wildly.
The fight wasn't long, but it was bloody. It ended with Rurutip on the ground, panting heavily, his nose smashed and an arm broken, and Kado standing above him, the final ki sphere prepared.
"No!" I screamed, but neither moved from their grisly tableau. "Kado, please, don't kill him!"
I felt the air around me tingle, and suddenly Gokuu was gone. He appeared in a blur of speed beside Kado.
"Don't." he whispered, and Kado looked up at him.
"I have to. It's the rules. I won, so I have to destroy my father."
"No, you don't." Gokuu said, more serious than I have ever seen him before.
"You have won, boy!" Ru snarled at Kado, yanking his attention off of Gokuu, and Kado took a few hasty steps back, his free hand over his heart as if he were trying to keep it in his chest. "So kill me! It is your duty!"
"But, Otousan..." Kado said softly, his ki sphere dissipating as he lowered his arm. "I don't want to."
"Don't be weak!" Rurutip shouted and I cringed, covering my ears. Ru purposefully rose to his knees and bared his chest to Kado. "You MUST! Don't shame me, brat!"
"Shut-up Rurutip!" I finally snapped, unable to bare the horrible thought of losing him any longer, tears brimming in my eyes. I ran over and grabbed his arm tightly, so tightly I was absurdly afraid my nails would cut his skin.
"But–!" he began, eyes still screwed shut. I fell to the arena floor beside him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
"No! Gokuu's right! For once in your life, please, don't be stubborn!" He opened his eyes and turned to stare at me with disbelief. "Rurutip, please. You don't have to die. Kado doesn't HAVE to kill you."
"I don't?" Kado said, amber eyes darting to Vejii, the expression therein halfway between happiness and confusion.
Gokuu took it upon himself to answer, one hand resting lightly on my son's shoulder. "No, you don't, Kado-san. Where I am from, everyone, no matter their age, is valuable. Just because you are stronger than your father, that doesn't mean he isn't useful anymore. He is an intelligent fighter, I saw as much. There is still much he could teach you – teach all of us, actually. There was a move in there that I'd really like to learn."
Kado looked to Vejii, his brother figure, for confirmation.
"Whatever!" Vejii threw up his hands and turned his back on our gathering, seething. "YOU'RE the SuperSaiya-jinn, Kakarotto. What you say goes! If you want to destroy a millennia old tradition, I cannot stop you!"
With a growl of fury, Vejii flew from the sparring arena. I was sorely tempted to go after him, but didn't want to leave Ru.
"Go on," Gokuu said softly, having read my expression, "Make sure he's alright. I'll look after Rurutip and Kado."
"Arigato." I whispered in return, then turned to Ru, and pressed my lips to his. "I love you," I said. "I could never watch you die. It would kill me."
There was a small awkward pause, then Ru lifted his whole arm, not the one that was hanging limply by his side, and pulled me forward for another, more passionate kiss.
It lasted far longer, and Kado actually turned away.
When we pulled our mouths apart, Rurutip sneered. "Bitch."
***
I found Vejii in his rooms, stalking back and forth, smashing everything he could get his hands on against the wall.
I ducked almost foolishly as a vase shattered next to the door when I entered and I squeaked. He heard me and turned to face me, his expression livid.
"This is all your fault!" he snarled and came forward to grab my arm and drag me in. I didn't resist, knowing he was in a fury and fighting would only make him madder. He yanked me into his face as he raged. "All this! My kingdom is no longer mine! I am no longer the strongest! I do not rule; Kakarotto does, and your bastard son! THEY are the SuperSaiyans, not I!"
"Vejii, please, calm down..." I whispered, and in response he hurled me onto the bed. I rolled along it and hit my head on the wall, but not enough to make me anything more than breathless.
"Shut up! You've caused enough trouble with your senseless words!" He yanked the royal pendant off from around his neck, the beads of the necklace spilling onto the floor. "This! THIS! It's MEANINGLESS!"
"Vejii..." I said calmly sitting up, swaying only slightly.
He stared at me, eyes wide and jaw slack in wonder. The pendant slid from his fist to thump pathetically against the carpet. Vejii soon followed, all of his weight slamming violently down onto his knees. He bent over them, the heels of his hands pressed against his eyes like a small child.
After a few moments I realized that the tremors that played along his strained back and the hiccuping sounds he was making were not anger, they were SOBS. Vejii was wailing with more sorrow than I have heard in anyone in my entire life.
"Oh, Vejiita..." I said softly and slid off the bed to hold my little King.
He squeezed back, afraid that if I let him go, he'd be alone forever.
"I didn't h-have t-to ..." he wailed as he pressed his face into my neck, his hot tears spilling onto my shoulder. "I d-didn't h-have to k-kill Ot-tousaaaaaaan......."
"I know, Vejii," I whispered, rocking him back and forth in my embrace. "I know."
***
As this was happening, Aleta had arrived on Vejiita-sei and was waiting in the Royal Gardens outside of the palace, watching the sky turn from rose to crimson in the bleeding daylight as she waited for Gokuu to come and collect her.
When she heard Vejii's muffled sobs coming from his open window, she sought out the sound, found it, and peered in.
She recognized Vejii as the King of Vejiita-sei - a man she had come to hate without ever meeting before. She despised him for letting so many soldiers run wild all over the empire and create the kind of misery that she had endured: that which came from the knowledge that one was a bastard child conceived during a rape.
But what she saw made her heart wrench like she never thought it would for the arrogant asshole-Prince.
"So, he can feel after all..." she muttered to herself, and turned away, deciding to seek out Gokuu herself.
***
When Vejii came back to himself, the anger returned.
He demanded that Gokuu and this bastard child of his be brought to his meeting room immediately, and his face was so red as he barked out these orders that I feared for his sanity.
I had never before seen him so upset.
Gokuu arrived, smiling happily, tail wagging, chatting absent mindedly with the guard. Aleta - a lovely young lady with long silky blue-green hair pulled up into a ponytail and a long thin tail of the same shade - was less than thrilled, and it was obvious by her narrowed green eyes. She was acting as if the King held them both prisoner.
In a way, he was. There was no way they'd ever get off Vejiita-sei now without his permission. Or no, Gokuu, I'm sure, could have blasted his way off-world as a SuperSaiyan, so what I mean is: there'd be no way for them to leave the planet PEACEFULLY.
Rurutip and Kado had arrived shortly before that at my request, and Rurutip had explained to Vejii the details of the situation in which Gokuu - formerly known as Kakarotto - and I had first met, and how he had been forced into being a SuperSaiyan and killing Freiza.
He neglected to mention that Gohan had been murdered by the afore mentioned monster and I made sure to correct this oversight.
Vejii absorbed all of this -so too did Kado, I noticed- and was considerably more calm by the time Gokuu and Aleta entered the room.
Vejii graciously offered them seats on the couches around the low table in the centre of the room, and Gokuu said "Sure!" and plopped down. This was not the determined and abused man I remembered meeting so many years earlier; he had changed. He had become more carefree and loving. He was so... OPEN.
Of course, it could also be the fact that this time, his life was not threatened, nor that of his child. At least, not to him, it wasn't. But the silent menace in the room was more than obvious to everyone BUT him.
Aleta, on the other hand, was very guarded and declined to sit, which offended Vejii greatly.
I saw it from my seat next to Rurutip, and whispered up at her, "Perhaps you should sit, my dear."
She blinked down at me, arms crossed over her chest, and said far too loudly "Why should I? Just because this jerk says so?" Vejii visibly bristled, his teeth bared, and I nearly choked on my teeth. "He's not MY King."
"I am so." Vejii snapped, rising to his own feet. "I rule EVERYONE in this galaxy."
"Not me," Aleta sneered, turning her back to him in a glaringly obvious gesture of disrespect. "I was left to DIE by you and your Empire! My mother was MURDERED by one of your soldiers. I don't consider myself a part of the Saiya-jinn race! I am a human!"
Vejii snarled. "Then you are not my subject but my SLAVE! And I order you to SIT!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
I whined and clapped my hands over my ears, knowing that Vejii was going to beat the shit out of her any second now.
"Oi, Aleta-chan." Gokuu smiled and tugged on her belt. "These chairs are comfy. Sit beside me."
Vejii and Aleta both turned to the older Saiyan and I marvelled at how well he had diffused the potentially lethal situation with such ease as Aleta took a seat beside him.
"Okay, Gokuu-san." She pouted, glaring pointedly at Vejii. "But only because you asked me to."
The king fumed silently and sat in his own individual chair, arms crossed and a furious scowl on his face.
Gokuu then looked around and said, "This is a nice place, Vejiita. Don't you think so, honey?"
He turned to Aleta, who only thinned her lips slightly in response. Vejii snapped, "You will refer to me as Vejiita-SAMA, you low class bastard."
"Sure." Gokuu shrugged, then turned his eyes to me. "Hey, I remember you now. You're that girl from when I turned SuperSaiyan that first time."
I blushed and nodded slowly, feeling Rurutip growl. I shot him a look that said to shut up and don't be jealous.
Suddenly serious, Gokuu leaned forward and said, " I never got a chance to say this before: Thank you for looking after Gohan."
Tears suddenly stung the backs of my eyes, but I blinked them away, refusing to cry in front of Kado. "You're welcome," I rasped.
"Enough!" Vejii snarled. I did not bring you here to blabber about stupid little things!"
Gokuu, un-offended that Vejii had called his son's death a 'stupid little thing', turned his attention to the king.
Vejii slammed a fist down on his own knee. "Kakarotto, you will teach me to be a SuperSaiyan, is that understood!? I demand that you reveal all your secrets to me!"
Aleta immediately jumped to her feet. "You can't tell him what to do like that!"
"Yes, I can!" Vejiita snarled in response, once again leaping up so he was eye level with the demi-Saiyan female before him. "I am the King! I can do whatever I want!"
"Oh, yeah, hot shit?!" She snarled and I yelped.
Vejii curled his hands into fists and threw one towards Aleta. Gokuu ducked and yelled, "Yeah! Show him how good you are, Aleta!"
Rurutip smirked as I screamed and said, "Shut up, Ningen. Let the King beat respect into her. She'll learn." Kado only nodded in agreement.
Aleta dodged the punch and flipped through the air out of his reach. Vejii followed her, furious, and attacked.
They began to move at speeds too fast for me to follow, although I could tell where they were by what broke and when.
It seemed forever, but it must have only been a few minutes before there was a loud cracking sound and I saw Aleta slam into the wall behind me and slump to the floor, blood on her face.
Vejii appeared before her, no less beat up, but still standing at least. I wanted to stop the fight, but as I began to move, Rurutip wrapped his tail around my wrist and hissed, indicating that I was to stay out of it.
Gokuu didn't look as concerned as I thought he should. He merely sat back on the couch, his arms thrown over the backing, a silly grin on his face. As if he knew that Vejii would not be able to harm Aleta seriously.
"You're not bad, bitch." Vejii panted down at his vanquished opponent, and she stirred briefly, not looking up. "I want to fight you again. You will meet me in my Royal Sparring Room at day break, you understand me?"
She said nothing, so he assumed it was a yes. Then he turned to Gokuu. "And you. You will stay in the palace and teach me your secrets. All of them. I WILL be a SuperSaiya-jinn."
Gokuu shrugged, and grinned. "I've never stayed in a palace before. Is the food good?"
Vejii smirked his most amused and toothy grin. "The best in the universe."
"That's great." the elder Saiyan smiled and got to his feet, leaning over the table to clap Vejii on the back. Rurutip tensed and Kado's eyes went wide.
NO ONE touched the King without permission!
"See ya in the morning, Vejiita!" Gokuu then grinned and went over to where Aleta was still on the floor. He picked her up and strolled out of the room.
"Vejiita-SAMA!" Vejii screeched after them, a vein protruding on his forehead.
***
After bidding my King a hasty good-night, I told Rurutip I'd meet him back in our rooms and ran after Gokuu.
I told him where the Regeneration Tanks were, and he thanked me, taking Aleta there.
I stared after him with disbelief and shook my head slowly. "You two are going to get yourselves killed."
***
"She's arrogant! Insolent! Rude!" Vejii screamed as he paced back and forth in his chambers, and I sat on the edge of his bed with a sympathetic look on my face. "She acts as if SHE is the superior and deliberately rubs her knowledge of technology in my face!" he turned to me abruptly with a snarl. "Maria! She's a snobby, know-it-all BITCH!"
"I TOLD you you wouldn't like sparring with her." I said softly. "Vejii, you know what Aleta thinks of you. She's made it more than clear. Why do you suffer through her insults?"
He said nothing and I tried to probe for more information. He had been sparring daily with Aleta for almost two weeks now, and each day he came away from their fights with more anger than the day before. It had actually begun to affect his decisions as a King, and I had taken it upon myself to try to calm him down – if I could actually figure out what the problem was.
"Vejii, she can't be that good a fighter. I don't see how your spars could help improve your technique at all. Why do you bother if you can't stand her?"
He stared at me hard with narrowed eyes then turned on his heel and marched towards the door. Just before he left he looked back over his shoulder and said. "Because she's pretty when she's mad."
I blinked and stared after him with huge eyes. Then I fell backwards onto his bed and began to laugh.
***
"I want to go off-world." Vejii announced, straightening from his defensive position to stare Gokuu in the eye.
Gokuu paused in his own katas and stared at the King. They'd been sparring for almost three months now, and Vejii had never mentioned something like this before.
"Why?" he asked, scratching his ear casually. "The food here is good."
"I don't CARE about the FOOD, baka!" Vejii snarled. "There is a planet at the outer rim of this Solar System with gravity ten times that of Vejiita-sei. I want to train there."
"Oh." Gokuu paused for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Sure, if you want to. Have fun, Vejii."
"Kakarotto!" Vejii snapped, tugging at his hair. "If you're going to disrespect me by using my familiar name, at LEAST use the WHOLE THING!"
"But," Gokuu sighed and sat down. "Maria calls you Vejii."
"That's different." Vejii snarled, then sat down himself, his brain more weary than his body. Gokuu was an idiot, plain and simple, and it was beginning to drive him nuts.
"I don't see how."
Vejiita sighed and stared up at the ceiling, deciding that he'd rather meditate than talk with the idiot SuperSaiyan.
"You're coming too," he said after a long while, and Gokuu sent him a puzzled glance.
"Coming where?"
"Training with me!" Vejii jumped to his feet and stalked over to Gokuu and hit him upside the head. "Are there no brains in that skull of yours!?"
"Um... yeah." Gokuu grinned, rubbing the sore spot. "But Bulma always said they're scrambled. Like eggs." He paused for a moment and licked his lips. "Chichi used to make the best scrambled eggs."
Vejii stared at Gokuu for a moment, then knelt in front of the elder Saiyan. It was rare that Gokuu ever spoke of his life before the Saiyans came to Earth, and Vejii was always a curious man, so he probed for more information about these 'Bulma' and 'Chichi' people.
"Who's Chichi?" He asked gruffly, moving into a lotus position.
Gokuu leaned back on his hands and closed his eyes. "She was my wife. She was... she was beautiful."
Vejii snorted. "A Chikyuu-jinn bitch, huh? Raddittzu told me you'd had a mate and brat."
"Don't talk about my wife like that!" Gokuu suddenly snapped, and Vejii blinked.
"Why are you so protective, baka? She's DEAD."
Gokuu's voice lowered dangerously and his one visible eye narrowed. "I love her, and I won't let anyone say bad things about my Chichi."
"Love." Vejii sneered, and he turned his face away, disturbed by the intense emotion found in Kakarotto's. "There's no such thing."
"Yes, there is." Gokuu whispered. "I loved Chichi with all my heart. And I loved my Gohan too. Sometimes..." he put is hand over his heart and his face twisted as if he was in the most excruciating physical pain imaginable. "I would have died, for them. I wish I had died. And then they could be alive."
Vejiita starred at Gokuu with a look of mild horror on his face. "You would have given your life for a bitch and a brat? You would have given up the chance to be a SuperSaiyan."
"That's what love is." Gokuu said simply. To him, there was no confusion in this. "When you care enough about someone to want to die to keep them from being hurt... that's what love is."
Vejiita looked down at his hands, which were resting limply in his lap. "...Love..." he whispered.
Gokuu slowly climbed to his feet and put a tender hand on Vejii's shoulder. "That's enough for today," he said and turned to walk away.
"Tell me more." Vejii demanded, climbing to his feet and Gokuu paused. "Tell me who Bulma was."
Gokuu shrugged. "She was my first friend. She was really smart, like Aleta is, with machines and stuff. She was Aleta's mom. I... miss her a lot."
Vejii stiffened. "So that's why that battle with Epinard was so personal. He killed your friend."
Gokuu only nodded.
"This... this love thing." Vejii said quietly. "How do you know when you're in love?"
Again, Gokuu only shrugged. "You .... just know, y'know?" Vejii shot him a puzzled glance, and Gokuu leaned back against the sparring-room wall, face scrunched in pure concentration. "Like, one day you see a girl and you think, 'Wow she's really nice and pretty and smart, and I really really like her...' Like, that's love, sorta."
"Oh." Vejiita whispered, then turned his back to Gokuu and moved to the windows at the far side of the room.
Gokuu took that as his cue to leave. But before he could make it to the door, Vejii called out once more: "Kakarotto?"
"Yeah?"
"You... loved Chichi?"
Gokuu sighed, "Yeah."
"And... does Maria love Rurutip?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Does.... do you think anyone will ever love me?"
Gokuu shrugged. "Wait and find out. I bet a nice girl will love you one day."
Silence met his reply and Gokuu exited the room. As the doors hissed shut behind him, Vejiita murmured, "Thank you.... Gokuu."
***
It took a few days for the preparations to be made for Gokuu and Vejiita's journey on their Training Hiatus, during which both realized that Kado ought to go with them, as a SuperSaiyan himself.
My son was thrilled beyond all reasoning, but upset that Aleta was not allowed to go too. They had become very good friends over the past three months.
Gokuu said that he did not want Aleta there with just the three guys. He insisted that Chichi had always said that "A real Lady does not stay with a bunch of smelly men all alone," and he had the firm belief that Aleta was a real lady.
Vejii said that he did not need the distraction of such a 'stupid, weakling bitch.'
Which, of course, meant, 'I wouldn't be able to think with her around.'
Just before they were to leave, I accosted Vejii in his chambers and said, "You have to promise me something."
"What?" he smirked.
"That you won't kill Gokuu once you become a SuperSaiyan."
"Stupid woman." Vejii's sneer softened a little, like it always did when I was around. "When I become a SuperSaiyan, I won't NEED to kill Kakarotto. I'll be far stronger than him, and I'll be able to whatever I want. He'll be useful to keep around. Imagine, my own band of SuperSaiyans."
"Hai." I whispered. "About that. Please, Vejii, the Empire has become a much nicer place since you took the throne. Please, don't hurt any more people with your new power."
He looked slightly aghast at my boldness, but his expression slid into sympathy when he saw the tears in my eyes.
"Maria. If this universe had stayed the way Freiza had it, people like you would have disappeared. And people like Kado and Kakarotto. Who knows had other sorts of treasures and knowledge I can attain by keeping the Empire peaceful?" he smiled down at me, one hand running down the side of my face with a soft gentleness. "I would not loose that for the chance to be tenfold more powerful than a SuperSaiyan."
I nodded, thanking him silently.
"Besides," he said, turning his back to me to finish packing up his last set of armour. "I would not have met my Mate."
"Mate?" I called after him, confused by his sudden announcement that he had found himself a warrioress suitable to be his wife. "Who? Vejii-chan!" I called out as he walked away from me.
"WHO!?"
***
END PART THREE