It contains violence, shounen-ai, strong language and more. It's AU,
beginning during the fight with Radditzu. Gokou's POV.
Order of sin
by solange channonix
Prologue
Things had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. Even that morning I couldn't have excepted the sudden attack. I was the reason of it this time, that's why I had been fighting even harder than usual to save Chikyuu from it. To no avail. The opponent, my older brother, was too strong. There was no chance for me to defeat him fighting alone, or even along with Piccolo. If we hadn't managed to win already we weren't going to win this fight ever. We were both hurt badly while Radditzu didn't seem affected by our most powerful attacks, thrown at him in powerless fury. We couldn't win, one thing we could still find on the battlefield was the warrior's death, nothing more. And after we would be dead there wouldn't be any chance for Chikyuu, anymore.
Piccolo's body hit the ground with the sickening sound of crushing bones and breaking spine, his head staying face down though he was lying there on his back, motionless, dead. There was no chance, not anymore, not after Namek's death, no chance to win, to save Chikyuu from the terrible fate of the purged planet that surely awaited it now.
I looked back from Piccolo's broken body to my brother's face. Cold black eyes regarding me, emotionless, dead. Lips twisted in cruel amused smirk. Tail, unhooked carelessly from around his waist, swaying behind him in a slow motion.
My heart squeezed painfully as I looked to Radditzu's feet, where Gohan was lying, unconscious, vulnerable, defenseless. What was going to happen to him once I would be dead, surely Radditzu was going to take him with him, back to the other Saiya-jins, after the display of his power.
Radditzu's tail began lashing impatiently back and forth, his brows furrowing.
" It's time to end, little brother."
My eyes moved back to stare at Radditzu. My fists clenching hard on both sides of me on their own accord. But I unclenched them and let my arms hang uselessly, limply. I wasn't the one to surrender easily, but I knew there was no sense in fighting what I couldn't defeat. I would die with honor, like a warrior, not like a child struggling to the last moment to stay alive.
" This will be such a loss. Saiya-jin blood isn't common thing to meet roaming across the galaxy nowadays." Said Radditzu, his tail hooking back around his waist. " For once I don't want to kill." His smirk went into a little smile. " Use it at your advantage, little brother." He reached to his ear and pulled the scouter away smashing it in his large hand. " What do you want ?"
" What ?" I asked hesistantly, looking up into my brother's eyes, trying to read anything from them, but they were like eyes of the dead body, holding no emotions and no life.
" I figured out that if I kill you now nobody's going to profit from this. All of the interested sides will only lose. You're going to be killed, this planet destroyed and we won't get another Saiya-jin to join us. There's no point for me in doing something so illogical."
" Leave then, go away and leave us be !"
Radditzu smirked.
" No, little brother. If I will leave surely you and Chikyuu are going to profit, but what about us ? We still won't get you. Think of a better solution."
I shook my head.
" There is a way to satisfy all. You and your brat go with me and I leave Chikyuu in peace, what about it ?"
I shook my head once again. I didn't know. I could go and die somewhere there in space after disobeying the Saiya-jins once they would tell me to kill. If I would have been all Radditzu wanted in exchange for Chikyuu's peace I wouldn't have hesitated, but Gohan was supposed to go with us as well. And he didn't deserve death, being just a little child, and he couldn't become a killer. Could I sacrifice him to keep Chikyuu whole and in peace, being his father ? Chi-Chi surely wouldn't have forgiven me that, ever. But since the alternative was all of us dying along with the planet, I should try to save the most I could.
Radditzu grew annoyed, his tail lashing in the air once again, more violently than before.
" So ? Don't keep me waiting or I forget about leaving Chikyuu intact."
" I'll go with you... but... let Gohan stay here..."
" Not a chance. You know my terms, you can either agree or disagree, no more options."
I clenched his fists. I couldn't, not Gohan... Kami knew what they were going to do with him, what could have awaited my little son in the future. I couldn't, but yet again, would it be better if all of us die now ?
" I'm running out of patience, little brother."
" I... I..."
I looked at my unconscious son once again. He was so little, so innocent and these monsters were going to change it soon. But Chikyuu...
" I'll go." I said finally. There was no other way. I couldn't be responsible for the death of all humans.
" Wise choice, little brother." Said Radditzu, smirking wide.
I looked up at him, my jaw setting firmly. Kami, what had I done ? I
had just... had just agreed to join those killers, and as I needed to stay
alive for Gohan, I was going to have to kill innocent beings myself. How
could I ? How could I not ? Damn all of this.
I woke up from the long, extorted sleep, giving no rest. I felt throbbing pain coming from every possible part of my body. My every muscle was sore from spending much time in weird, curled position, and tired, like if after a good workout. The gravity was high above Chikyuu's, it was hot, sultry and close. It was scary. Only me and Gohan, curled in my lap, inside a tiny container, and the void outside, all around it, white lights of stars, of millions worlds like Chikyuu, piercing the blackness, perfect blackness, the kind of blackness I had never seen back on Chikyuu, even on the darkest of nights. I felt vulnerable against this blackness, like it could swallow me at every moment and there was nothing I could to do defend myself, I was defenseless, weak, little compared to the void, and alone. It was scary. The travel was scary but what awaited me, us, at its end was even worse. I feared it. And it was the first time in my life when I ever feared anything. I hugged my son, looking for comfort in that sleeping body, little and warm, burying my face into his spiked hair.
" Hey, little brother !"
I heard Radditzu's voice just beside me. I looked up. There was a loud-speaker and a radio I hadn't noticed before.
" You're probably wondering why you're awake... We'll close to the target. So, prepare to the rough landing in the next few minutes."
" Wh... Where are we ?" I asked shakily. Had I been asleep ? How long ? How that happened that we were already going to land. It seemed for me that we had launched mere minutes ago. Were Saiya-jins that close to Chikyuu whole the time ?
" Sector B-110, we'll getting close to the planet #81, that's where we'll land. You don't understand much from all of this, ne ?" A chuckle could be heard from the loud-speaker. "You'll get used soon."
" Are we far away from Chikyuu ?" I asked hoping I would get an answer.
" Yeah... We needed a year to get here from there." Said Radditzu lazily, yawning.
" A... A year ? I don't..."
" A year in the cryo-sleep doesn't seem that long. Weird for someone who comes from that backward planet as you, isn't it ? More amusing things to come. We'll meet after landing, little brother, good luck !"
The loud speaker went as silent as it had been before. A year... A year had somehow passed since I had left Chikyuu... For me it seemed like if it hadn't been more than half an hour, and there, on Chikyuu, a year had passed, if I could believe in the truthfulness of my brother's words. A year... Chi-Chi was alone for a year. I had left her alone, and took our son away, and she didn't even know why. She had to be going nuts, worried sick, and Kami, it was possible that she and my friends thought I had chosen the Saiya-jins above them willfully, as I hadn't been allowed from Radditzu to see them once again before the departure. They didn't know nothing about what had happened, probably they had assumed me and Gohan dead, as was Piccolo. But at least they were alive. Alive and safe... That's why I had done it, for them, for Chikyuu, as always.
The planet came in view. Appearing at first as another star, only getting larger and larger, until it filled whole the pod's little window with its greatness, covered tightly in blood red clouds enlightened here and there by the great lightnings or maybe explosions. Rather the second, as it was purged by the other Saiya-jins right now. The pod was still moving fast, drifting just above the clouds, then going through them and flying over the greatest mountains I had ever seen, few times as big as the highest on Chikyuu, made of red stone and covered in strangely pinkish forests. Then, there was a city, dark and empty, not even one Ki left inside it, but a city indeed, with houses and buildings trying to reach to the sky, with strangely decorated towers, streets and roads. Nothing of this really destroyed. Only inhabitants were all dead. How ? How to kill few millions people in a reasonable amount of time avoiding the typical holocaust which would have destroyed the buildings ? Was I going to learn how ? I shook my head unconsciously, in the silent act of protest displayed by my subconsciousness and leaned more to the window, looking closely at the blurred image of the land below. There was a plateau, with another city, and another, one of which just empty like the first, second half burned. And still, there was no Ki, no sign of something living down there. This terrain was already purged. Purged by the Saiya-jins, I was the one of, I was going to join in the matter of minutes and have to decide, if I would kill along with them to save my son, or rather get killed and leave my little kid alone, or rather die and take Gohan to heaven with me, giving him no chance to grow up and live on his own. I was going decide what was more important for me, my son or my morality. And forget how the first was linked with the second. I had no other choice...
The pod jerked viciously, sending us crushing against the window. It began descending quickly, preparing to landing. Apparently, we were close to the destination. I sighed trying to calm myself and regain some measure of clarity of my thoughts, my mind dazed by the suddenness of past events. A year had passed, maybe, but for me it still seemed like a one day. But, Kami, I had to be able to think straight.
" Daddy, where are we ?" Asked Gohan who had woke up feeling the pod moving strangely. He had regained his consciousness for the first time since Radditzu had stroke him back on Chikyuu, so he couldn't know.
I looked down at my son, hugging him closer to shelter him against the vicious jerks of the pod. How was I supposed to tell him that I had sacrificed him to save Chikyuu ?
" We had to leave Chikyuu with Radditzu, otherwise, he would have destroyed Chikyuu, and kill momma."
" So... So, where are we ?" Asked Gohan, terror filling his innocent black eyes. " Not on Chikyuu ?"
I shook my head.
" We're landing on a planet where we're going to meet the other Saiya-jins. We had to leave Chikyuu."
" But... they are evil. I don't want to stay here ! Take me back to momma ! I'm hungry !" Cried Gohan, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks. " I want to go home !!!"
Me too, Gohan...
The pod reached the ground, smashing into it at the full speed, the jerk that followed seeming to crush my bones, blurring my vision and making me sick, my stomach going to my throat and then whole the way back down.
" I'm sick !!! That hurts !!!" Cried Gohan. " I want to momma !!!"
" Shhh... Don't cry, Gohan."
Gohan seemed oblivious to my soothing, crying worse with every passing second, his physical pain mixing with confusion, yearning and hurt.
" Please, Gohan, not now." I whispered seeing the pod opening, Radditzu standing there and motioning for us to go out.
" Let's go, little brother." He said only before turning and blasting into the sky.
I went out, the pod closing behind me on its own accord, and looked around. Dark purple sand, red rocks here and there, blood red sky and a bit darker clouds, mountains at the horizon, few pinkish trees in the distance, our pods in the centers of little craters, and the trail of white light left behind by my brother. Should I follow him ? And what if I would have not ? I could make my Ki so low that undetectable. But, Gohan couldn't control his Ki, and I had to be obeying them, otherwise they would come back and destroy Chikyuu, Radditzu had said me so. I gritted my teeth and blasted into the sky as well. I didn't like flying by myself, I missed Kintoun. Gohan was suddenly surprisingly silent and wasn't crying anymore. I smiled down at him, failing miserably but, Kami, I couldn't help it, for once there was no reason to be cheerful. I followed my brother's Ki, looking for others at the same time. There were some, few hundreds of little alien Ki's left intact, and two great Ki's, somehow similar to mine and Radditzu's but way stronger than my brother's. Ki's of the Saiya-jins. They were close.
I saw Radditzu landing beside another bulky warrior clad in similar armor. I landed as well, watching the two from the safe distance. The other Saiya-jin was even taller than Radditzu, built and tanned like him, but very unlike him bald, his Ki was bigger, he was twice as strong as my brother, and was standing there, with his arms folded over his chest, looking up and away from Radditzu's face as he was hearing to him reporting. Looking at the sky, changed into the real sea of fire, falling down from it onto the last little town on the planet where some Ki could be still found. Whole inferno caused by the other Saiya-jin, I could only feel the Ki of, many times stronger than my own, the person invisible. But it wasn't like if I couldn't imagine how he looked, it seemed all Saiya-jins were high, muscled and with weird hair.
The fire on the sky continued burning, until it swallowed all of a few hundred Ki's of the last from the natives, then it disappeared like if it never existed, revealing a short, compact figure, dressed in royal blue, with upswept ebony hair. Slowly, the person turned facing me from high above, black, cold eyes piercing mine, seeing through them and through me, the lips quivering up in a satisfied smirk.
I forgot about breathing, let alone anything else, looking up into the sky, into these impossibly black eyes, letting my own travel few times up and down short figure. Kami, I couldn't remember when I had seen something so beautiful for the last time... if I had ever seen... Beautiful... Ouji-sama...
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