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Chapter 18 – A Saiyan's Dream, A Saiyan's Grief
The Earth was in a sorry state. Large craters adorned the ground, the last remnants of the great battles that had ravaged the planet over the last couple of days still fresh in the ground. A figure pulled himself out from a jagged rimmed crater, smaller than some of the others that lay around the area. He stood up shakily and looked about himself at the ground around about, and he shuddered before collapsing forward and hitting the ground. A cloud of dust blasted out from under his body as he hit the earth, and he lay there, silently taking in the details of the battle. The brute Brolli, the combined forms of the two young Saiyans, the strength and brutality of Goku and Vegeta, the un-Saiyan strength that Gohan seemed to draw upon.
Tomatta rolled over and lay on his back, looking up at the stars that twinkled billions of miles away from his eyes, the light taking years to reach his vision. He knew that some of those stars were galaxies, others illuminated clouds of gas in the deepest depths of the universe, probably dead or dying as the light reached him.
Tomatta lay there for some time, trying to remember how he happened to end up at the center of a deep crater at the base of Dende's Tower. He had been hit downwards, just beneath the cloud cover, then he had swung around and headed back up to the tower top to re-engage combat with Brolli. That's when something had hit him. A large blast of searing light had knocked the sense out of him, and at the time he just thought it had been one of Brolli's blasts of kai. He didn't realize that it had been the Hyperbolic Time Chamber exploding, sending a destructive wash of energy across the globe.
Buildings crumbled and crashed down as the blast wave spread across the world, only the hardiest of structures surviving the destructive force of pure time as it spread out from its Lookout epicenter. But, it was nothing to Tomatta. All he cared about was that a simple fool with weird white-within-white eyes had bested him.
Tomatta gave a slight groan as he tried to move, and collapsed back to the ground, closing his eyes to wait out the spinning sensation and the pounding in his ears and head. Before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep.
Tomatta's dream was blurred and hard to piece together. Brolli was looming over him, not as broad as he had been when Ultra – his normal Super Saiyan state -, but the slimmer and much, much stronger form of his second stage. Tomatta could faintly hear the crackling buzz of the blue-green energy snaking across his body whilst the golden hair with the green tints waved in the energy-wash of his stronger aura.
Tomatta felt himself move forward and swing a punch, seeing his own arm swing out rapidly and his nothing but the vanishing after image of Brolli's grinning face. Tomatta heard something growl, and it took him a moment to realize it had been himself. Feeling something appear behind him, the Saiyan turned and came face to face…
… with himself!
Tomatta stared at disbelief at the younger version of himself, the same Tomatta that had fled the doomed Planet Vegeta at his uncle Bardock's orders.
Chibi Tomatta hung in the air, watching his older self stand watching him with an open mouth, as his tail waved behind him.
"Why did you let them die…" came the hoarse whisper from Tomatta young lips, and Tomatta, the real Tomatta narrowed his eyes.
"I never let anybody die!" he shouted back.
"Why didn't you save them…" Tomatta said, again in a whisper.
"I couldn't!" Tomatta shouted, feeling his anger start to rise.
"Why weren't you there when you needed them!" The visage vanished, and Tomatta found himself hanging in space, the cold darkness touching his skin as the stars burned in the multitude. Turning around, he saw his uncle hanging in space, his armour tattered and torn, blood slowly running down his face from a wound on his forehead. Tomatta tuned, following the determined gaze of Bardock and came to see a white alien sitting in some sort of hovering box-seat across the void next to a large saucer ship. Aliens in Saiyan armour hung all around him and as he turned, he saw that they surrounded them. They even hung in the upper atmosphere of his home.
Everything was silent, all the sounds, and all the voices, snapped away by the vision. But whose was it? Tomatta had never seen the last stand, the time when that maniacal white bastard, who was sitting there smiling, destroyed his home.
Freeza raised a finger as Tomatta, Bardock and Freeza's army watched with anticipation. A red-yellow glow appeared hanging from the tip and the smile widened slightly. Bardock's expression changed and he grinned, saying something unheard as he himself powered up a charge of energy, this one large and a pale blue colour that he clutched in his had. With a blur of speed, Bardock twisted and hurled the blast straight at Freeza, the kai going straight and true. Without question, the charge would hit Freeza and, hopefully, kill the wretch.
The glow on the tip of Freeza's finger swelled greatly, no longer being just a small dot of light, but becoming a large ball of energy that was still rapidly swelling in size. Soon, the ball had the appearance of a sun and was much vaster than Freeza's starship. As Tomatta looked on, Bardock's pitiful kai bolt in comparison was absorbed into the larger Death Ball without any hesitation, it just entered the intense ball of energy and vanished.
Grinning insanely, Freeza pointed the finger that held the ball at the Planet, and soon the Death Ball was hurtling through the short space between the white Overlord and the planet below. Tomatta screamed, Bardock screamed, but there was no sound. Freeza's attack simply slammed down into the Planet's surface, and several seconds later, Vegeta blew up.
The blast struck Tomatta hard and he was shot across the galaxy, forever floating across the void, dimly aware of something laughing in the distance. He opened his tear-filled eyes and looked around, seeing nothing but the darkness of the void that had engulfed him.
"You are pathetic! A weakling! You cannot defeat me!" the voice boomed across the darkness.
"I am a Super Saiyan…" Tomatta said weakly as he floated away.
"You are nothing! I am everything! I am Legendary!" the voice responded, ending with a burst of heavy laughter. Tomatta ground his teeth.
"You will be destroyed!"
"I cannot be destroyed! Not by such a weakling family such as yours!"
"There are others!"
"The others will be destroyed."
"We wont let you!"
"You have no choice. You will be destroyed," the voice stated simply.
"Why are you doing this!" Tomatta's anger and hatred was boiling up inside of him now, something he hadn't felt in years. Out of the emptiness, Brolli's body unfolded as if he stepped out of a shadow.
"Because I am a Saiyan! Because I can!" Brolli's expression changed and he leered down towards Tomatta, the pure white eyes suddenly becoming black. "Because it is fun!"
"You monster!" Tomatta shouted, and suddenly Brolli's face became a grin.
"Monster? No… I am the devil," the beast said, repeating the line he had given to Piccolo those many years ago on the so-called 'New Vegeta'. Then, Brolli began to laugh. The laughter was insane, evil, disturbing. It was as though he truly was intent on destroying the last of the Saiyans…
Tomatta's eyes opened suddenly and he stared upwards. The sky was no longer black, and the sound of laugher did not fill his ears and his mind. Slowly, the Saiyan sat up and looked about at the ruined land as the first light of the morning hit the ground as Dawn shone her rosy fingers across the horizon.
Tomatta's thoughts reeled at the memory of the dream that was quickly slipping from his conscious mind, but one piece had driven itself deeply into his brain and was dug in so far that he could never forget it for as long as he lived.
"'Monster? No… I am the devil.'"
Tomatta shuddered at the memory and shakily rose to his feet. He was week, and he was still exhausted; that dream had left him feeling as though he hadn't slept at all through the night. Powering up, Tomatta shot upwards and into the air, heading back up towards the Lookout.
Piccolo opened his eyes from his meditation and he looked at the ruined floor of the Lookout's remains. Blocks of rubble were strewn across the floor from the fight and the once-white tiles were strewn with blood, dirt and more blood. The three kids had made a makeshift camp in the hollowed-out shell of the main building, and there they had rested with Mister Popo. In fact, there they still rested.
Gohan was asleep on the floor, trying as best as he could to get comfortable in the area he had cleared free of any bits of stone, mortar or other bits and pieces. The eldest son of Goku had been uneasy, feeling the guilt of leaving somebody to die at another's hands. Piccolo watched the man-child sleep a little longer then stood and made his way over to him.
"Gohan…" the Namek said softly as he leant down and softly shook the sleeping Half Saiyan. Gohan murmured in his sleep and rolled over slightly. Piccolo narrowed his eyes.
"Gohan!" he said more forcefully, and Gohan slowly opened his eyes.
"What is it, Mister Piccolo, sir?" he said with a yawn.
"It's time to get up. As long as Brolli is here, we can't afford to be resting so much," Piccolo replied.
"That's easy for you to say, you don't need as much rest as we do," Gohan said rubbing his eyes and trying to stifle a yawn. The Namek looked down at the warrior and smiled briefly.
"In that case, take your brother, Trunks and Applor to your home and get that mother of yours to make you up a large breakfast," Piccolo suggested. "You'll need to be strong for what I have planned for today."
"And what's that?" Gohan asked, sitting up and rearranging his outfit. Piccolo smiled grimly.
"We're going Saiyan Hunting!"
"What?!" Gohan was suddenly awake and on his feet. "You can't be serious!"
Piccolo looked at Gohan.
"Oh, wait… you're always serious..." Gohan said with a moan.
"Heh, yeah. That's right. Now move along. Come back here when you're fed and rested," Piccolo said. Gohan nodded and went across to wake the others.
"Are you sure that's such a good idea, Piccolo?" said a voice from behind the Namek's ear.
"I don't know, Kame, I just don't know." Piccolo turned to face the spirit of the former Guardian of Earth, which had been released in ways that eluded Piccolo's senses, since Kame wasn't even dead. As far as Piccolo knew, Kame was still a part of him.
"Hmm, just be careful you understand?!" Kame yelled, tightening his grip on his cane. Piccolo nodded.
"Yeah, I understand. I'll not let anything happen to them," he answered.
"I'm not worried about them! They're Saiyans, they can look after themselves! It's you I'm worried about!"
"Me?!" Piccolo asked, a little shocked.
"Yes, you! If you die, I die! And I am not ready to shuffle off this mortal coil!" Kame was getting more and more irate by the second, and it was disturbing Piccolo to think that this mean old man was a part of him.
"Yeah, whatever."
Two figures moved across the desert, looking in wonder at the scenes of destruction and devastation that littered the ground. Craters and blast marks littered the area, and not far away they could see a massive hole in the ground with two large scores radiating from it.
"What the hell could do this?" Maylon asked as he trudged up the out-lying ridges of a larger crater. Turrun hovered up beside him, looking with awe and fear at the scene.
"Whatever it was, it was powerful…" she said in almost a whisper. She turned her head to look to the east and something caught her eye, something blue in the sea of earth colours.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing.
"What's what?" Maylon asked, reaching the pinnacle of the crater and looking about.
"There, can you see it? That blue thing." Turrun started moving forward, rising over the larger blocks of stone that looked as though they had been ripped from the earth itself and slammed into the ground.
"Now you mention it… no." Maylon said, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun with his hand. Turrun shook her head and muttered something as she went to investigate. Maylon turned his head, watching her movements as she hovered across the ground daintily. With a sigh he powered up and flew after her, reaching her in a matter of moments.
"So what s it you're looking for?" he asked her, settling down onto the floor and walking beside he.
"I saw something blue," Turrun explained, her eyes darting amongst the stones and rocks to try and find what she saw before.
"The sky?" Maylon asked. She shot him a cold glance.
"No, you social baka. On the ground!"
"Alright then." Maylon glanced around the area, and he thought he saw something white sticking out from behind a boulder. Maybe it was the glare, or maybe it could have been…
"I think there's something over there," Maylon said, moving closer to investigate. Turrun moved swiftly after him, over taking him easily and speeding ahead once she saw what he had seen. She peered at the white object, then moved around the boulder and saw…
She gave a piercing shriek and scrambled backwards. Her heel caught on a boulder and she fell backwards to the floor, landing on her haunches. She scrabbled at the ground with her hands and feet, trying to push herself back away from what ever she had found.
Maylon powered up and ran forward, skidding past the boulder and he turned to see what she had seen, and gasped in horror.
"Is that…" he asked.
Turrun nodded.
"Are you sure? It could be…"
"I was a member of the court, I saw him frequently. That's definitely him."
"He doesn't look like him."
"Well, neither would you if you…" she paused and spun around, vomiting heavily into the sand and dust. Maylon turned to make sure she was okay, then turned back to what, or rather who, was lying in the sand.
It was Vegeta's corpse, mangled and crushed, lying face down in the dirt. Half his face had been destroyed and one arm had been ripped away, taking a portion of his chest with it. A lung and heart were clearly visible, but the force of the blast had charred the flesh and tissues considerably.
"What sort of beast would do that to a Prince?" Maylon asked, looking at the expression of fierce determination set upon Vegeta's features.
"A monster… some wretched monster!" Turrun shakily got to her feat and leaned against a large slab of rock for support, trying not to look at the Prince's remains but also finding them irresistible somehow.
"We can't just leave him here like this…" Maylon said unfurling his tail from his waist. Turrun looked at him.
"Well, what can we do?"
"What and good Saiyan would do. We cremate him." Maylon said. Turrun gasped at the suggestion.
"But he's the king!"
"He was the king. He died in battle; I think it's the proper thing to do. Don't you?"
"But we don't have anything to build a burial pyre out of!" Turrun argued. Maylon looked around and sighed.
"I guess we'll just have to look for something then."
"But…"
"Look! We can't just leave him hear like this!" Maylon snapped. Turrun backed off a little and nodded. "He was our King for Gods' sake!"
"If… If he is here, then are there others here too?" Turrun asked hopefully.
"Who knows? Maybe he was brought here the same way we were," Maylon answered after a seconds thought.
"Yes, but even so. If that is the case, how many others will there be?"
"Other what?" said a soft voice behind them. Turrun spun around and gazed at the one who was approaching. She was beautiful and had soft blue hair tied back in a single ponytail. Tears stained her eyes and cheeks and her eyes looked sore through crying.
"Who are you!" Maylon demanded.
"I am his wife," Bulma answered, pushing past the two Saiyan and kneeling down beside her fallen husband. A tear rolled down her cheek and splashed against Vegeta's cold face as she cradled the smashed head in her arms.
"His wife?" Turrun asked in disbelief. "You are no Saiyan!"
Bulma ignored him and sobbed softly, her shoulders shaking as her tears stained the ground. Turrun watched with a sneer.
"How could the King of all Saiyans marry such a weakling?" Turrun said turning her back on them.
"Turrun!" Maylon snapped.
"Who're these freaks?" said a younger voice, followed by the sound of feet landing on the floor. Maylon turned to see a young boy with almost the same hair as the woman move over to where Vegeta lay.
"Freaks!" Turrun shrieked. "I happen to be Lady Turrun, head of the greatest house of the Saiyans!"
Trunks wheeled around on her and fixed a penetrating glare on her. His eyes twitched and iris and pupil began to change colour, turning green.
"Then, Saiyan, bow down to your prince!" he shouted, his mood already short after Gohan woke them up early.
"You are no prince," Turrun snorted, tossing her hair back haughtily.
"I said KNEEL!" bellowed Trunks; bursting into Super Saiyan with so much force that Turrun was blown backwards. Maylon gasped at the boy and quickly dropped onto one knee.
"Please, sire! Forgive Lady Turrun! She knows not what she is saying!" the Saiyan warrior said quickly as Trunks heaved with anger. He had just lost his father, and he was not about to have his heredity questioned by a mere aristocrat.
"Trunks!" Bulma shouted. Her son flinched at the tone of her voice and looked at his mother.
"Yes mom?" he asked carefully.
"Take your father home," Bulma instructed. "I'm sure the last thing he wants is to wake up in the middle of the desert."
"Sure, mom," Trunks said with a nod. He turned around and carefully picked up the body of the Late Prince of Saiyans before flying away.
"You order around The Ruler of All Saiyans as if her were a mere boy…" Turrun said distastefully.
"He is a boy! He's only twelve," Bulma said moving away again. Turrun and Maylon exchanged glances, and Turrun shrugged.
"Uh, excuse, Milady…" Maylon asked, still kneeling with his head bowed.
"Yes?" Bulma said wearily. She had been searching for Vegeta all night; she didn't particularly want to answer questions right now. All she wanted to do was get home and cuddle up to her daughter.
"His highness, your son… what he did just then…"
"You mean when he took his father home?" Bulma asked.
"No, Milady. When he… changed colour."
"Oh, you mean when he went Super," Bulma said with a slight smile.
"Super?!" Maylon asked bewildered. "You mean your son is the Super Saiyan?"
"Not The Super Saiyan! That's just stupid. No, he's A Super Saiyan," Bulma explained.
"There're more of them??!!" Turrun was bewildered.
"Sure. Eight at the last count," Bulma said, reaching a clearing and taking a capsule out of her pocket. She pressed the activator stuff and tossed the capsule away from her. The capsule exploded outwards as a small helicopter, complete with Capsule Corporation insignia across the flanks, appeared. She clambered into the 'copter and gunned the motor, the rotors spinning and lifting the vehicle of the ground before the engines pushed her quickly away.
"Eight Super Saiyans!" Maylon said with disbelief. "Hey! Wait up!" He powered up and launched himself into the air, chasing after Bulma in her helicopter.
"And where do you think you're going?" Turrun asked, powering up herself and following.
Gohan, Goten and Applor arrived at the Capsule Corporation headquarter building and hesitantly headed inside. Trunks was already in the living room, laying full length on a sofa with his head buried in a pillow. The TV was on, but the sound was off, the mute symbol flashing on and off on the screen.
"Hey, Trunks, you okay?" Goten called, rushing to the sofa and jumping over the back, landing on the back of his friend's legs.
"Leave me alone, Goten," came the reply, muffled by the pillow.
"Aw, c'mon. You don't wanna be alone, do ya?"
"Goten, just leave me alone!" Trunks shouted into the pillow.
"Come on, Little Bro. Let's just let him deal with this in his own way," Gohan said, gently putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. Goten looked up at Gohan, then back to Trunks, then back up at Gohan and nodded. The three moved away and headed towards the kitchen.
"Will Lord Trunks be alright?" Applor asked, giving Trunks a title now that his father had died.
"I guess so. He took it pretty hard the last time Vegeta died," Gohan said, opening the large fridge and looking inside. The thing, as per usual, was packed with food, and he could feel himself drooling by just looking at all the food.
"The last time he died?" Applor asked, looking to Goten, who nodded in support.
"Yeah. When we were fight Buu he sacrificed himself to save the Earth."
"Buu?" Applor asked.
"Long story, kid. Long, long story." Gohan said, pulling out great armfuls of food and placing them on the table.
"So, what happened?" Applor asked.
"How do you mean?" Gohan asked in return.
"With the whole Buu thing. I want to know," Applor said, watching as Gohan started making something to eat.
"You sure you want to hear this now?" Gohan asked. Both boys nodded. "Goten, you know what happened. You were there."
"I know, but you're such a neat story teller I wanna hear it again!" Goten said with a silly grin. Gohan sighed.
"Oh alright," he said eventually and broke into a summarized version of events, starting off at the World Martial Arts Tournament and then ending with the final defeat of Buu. It lasted several courses.
"And then what?" Applor asked as Goten demolished his eighth super-sandwich.
"And then… nothing. We just relaxed, the Earth was safe again,"
"I can't believe you all nearly died!" Applor said. "You're all so strong!"
"We were a lot weaker then, believe me!" Gohan said with a laugh.
"Yeah, I reckon we could really beat the hell of that fat pink blob now," Goten said grinning, his mouth covered in jam [US: jelly].
"Definitely!" Gohan agreed, remembering what Vegeta had said about his powers. Applor looked at the two Sons and raised his eyebrows.
"So… what happens now?" the younger of the Saiyans asked. Gohan looked at him and narrowed his eyes.
"Now we rest up a little and then we hunt down the bastard who nailed Vegeta, and we show him that what he does to us, we repay a thousand fold!"
With Trunks' and Gohan's anger rising to dangerous levels, will they be able to make Brolli suffer for what he did to Vegeta? And what of that other twosome, Maylon and Turrun, who have taken to the air and are following Bulma as she returns home to Capsule Corp? Will they be welcomed by the Super Saiyans, or will Turrun's outburst be still be fresh in Trunk's mind? Find out in TOTAL WAR!!!!!!
AN: If you've gotten this far, you may as well REVIEW!