Sins of the Fathers Part 4

'I don't remember Papa too well. He died when I was a baby, so most of the things I know about him, I learnt from my mother.' Perched on a boulder with Kitara beside him, daring Vegeta to take another shot at him, Reizoku exhaled and winced at the dull ache in his shoulder as he recounted the past two decades of hell.

'Papa couldn't tell anyone he had a mate, much less a son, so he had to hide us away. He told Mom it was so that we couldn't be used as bribery during business deals; the head of the Planet Trade couldn't be seen to have a family. He never said as much, but he just did it to protect us. Apparently his precautions weren't as thorough as we had thought.' The changeling shot a glare in Vegeta's direction. To his credit, the Saiya-jin prince kept his mouth shut; the expression on his face however, spoke for itself.

'After Papa died, Mom had to raise me herself. She managed to do so much; she looked after me, she assumed the post as head of the Planet Trade and she ruled the Cold Empire in Koruudo's absence. But she just missed Papa so much. She really loved him, just as much as he had loved her.' He sighed. 'Aprii had been a member of Mom's personal guard when Papa was rebuilt as a droid, so after she died, Mom raised Kitara alongside me. She didn't care that Aprii was a Saiya-jin and neither did I. We were at peace for nearly two years, and the Planet Trade started to recover from Papa's death. Then…' His eyes turned downcast as he tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. '…Then Koola returned.'

Goten spoke up, wide-eyed from the prince's account. 'Koola…he was Frieza's older brother, right? Your uncle.'

Reizoku's voice grew as cold as his name. 'I have no uncle.'

Largely oblivious to the delicacies of family life, the implications of the comment passed straight over Goten's head. 'Whaddya mean, you have no uncle? Ok, so Koola's dead, but he's still your uncle!'

This earned him a look from both his father and Vegeta, the meaning behind the words sinking in as fast as the stereo stares from each side.

'He is not, has never been, and will never be, my uncle. Not after what he did.' His voice broke on the last sentence, his pain speaking more than his words could.

'So…what did he do? What happened?' Kuririn regarded him, now with more curiosity than aggression.

The changeling didn't speak. Instead he continued to stare at the ground. Seeing his obvious difficulty, Kitara reached up and tentatively squeezed his hand. A single nod and she took over. The tears in her eyes shone in the sunlight, making all of them apprehensive.

'We were both there when it happened.' Her voice sounded as if it were approaching from a distance. 'Koori, Frieza's mate, she told us to find somewhere to hide. Koola had returned to the homeworld, and he would most likely kill us if he found us. She was going to fight him to give us time to escape. We were so scared… We knew even then that she wouldn't last long against him, so we decided to hide somewhere in the throneroom, where Koola wouldn't find us, so we could help. When the fight began, it…it was almost equal; both of them were so strong. We though maybe Koori could win, she was so powerful. Then she…she started to weaken…she wouldn't last much longer against Koola. Soon she was on the floor…he was beating the living hell out of here and we couldn't do anything to help her.'

Her eyes squeezed shut in grief and her tears started to fall. 'Koola…laughed through the whole thing…he knew that he could've killed her at any time, but he just wanted her to suffer. Then he stopped. He said he wanted to hurt her even more than she'd hurt him…we didn't know what he meant until he…he…' The tears fell faster. Kitara bit back a sob as she looked up at Reizoku.

'He raped her.'

All of the Z Seishi stared at him in wide-eyed, open-mouthed horror. Even the normally unemotional Piccolo looked revolted. 'He what?!'

'I saw what happened. We both did. He raped her, then left her to die of her injuries. He was proud of what he had done.' The changeling prince looked up at the assorted warriors, his eyes unmistakably bloodshot. 'Once he'd left, Kitara and I tried to help Mom, but she ordered us to leave before Koola came back. We had to leave her there, lying on the floor of the throneroom, bleeding to death. We managed to steal two battle-pods from the docking bay, and we've lived as nomads ever since.'

The Saiya-jin warrioress wiped her eyes and took over again. 'None of the Trade worlds accepted our arrival. If they didn't recognise me, they always recognised Rei. The son of Lord Frieza and the daughter of Prince Vegeta…our reputations and those of our fathers always proceeded us. The last world we visited, Ionia, the natives took one look at us and attacked.'

'At least it explains why you arrived here so badly hurt.' Goku kept a protective eye on her as she stretched her scarred arms. Kitara nodded by way of response. She didn't trust her voice at that point; being completely in awe of the legendary Super Saiya-jin, she had a notion that anything she said would come out as an embarrassingly high-pitched squeak.

'Ionia…' Vegeta frowned. 'The Planet Trade never had any difficulties with the Ionia-jin. They're meant to be relatively peaceful- their government was always ready to aid Frieza and the rest of the guard.'

'Only because they were terrified of Papa's strength. When they found out the Trade had disintegrated and Papa was dead, they saw no reason to act as hosts towards me or Kitara. And believe me, they remembered you, Vegeta.'

'They had heard that while on Namek-sei, a Saiya-jin had defeated Frieza, then while on a planet in the outer Northern Rim, he had been completely destroyed along with Koruudo. If the Saiya-jin had become that powerful, then the few remaining members of our race needed to be exterminated. Including me.' The young Saiya-jin was wearing a smirk identical to her fathers. 'We'd landed to repair the ships and recuperate from our previous battles. Fighting for our lives two minutes after we'd landed wasn't high on our list of things to do. Once they worked out we didn't want to fight, they beat the crap out of us instead. We managed to escape, but we didn't know where to go. Then I remembered about Chikyuu. The last few Saiya-jin were living there in peace. We set ourselves in suspended animation and travelled here. I think you know the rest.'

'Wow.' Trunks stared at Kitara in growing admiration. Pureblood Saiya-jin were among the rarest things in the universe. To finally meet another besides Goku and his father, and his older half-sister at that…He felt an unmistakable rush of pride for her. She was his older sister…

Vegeta merely smirked. 'If the Ionia-jin gave you that much trouble, you're obviously not training enough. And the son of Frieza should possess far more power than you do.'

'I think you're the one who's not training enough. If you can't sense that I'm masking my ki, then it's incredible you survived this long.'

Piccolo raised a green eyebrow in the changeling's direction, thereby averting another argument. 'Then logically, you are also able to sense ki.'

Still unsure of how to act around Piccolo, Reizoku merely nodded. 'Kitara taught me how to mask and sense ki when I was about five.'

'Five? Fairly young to learn a technique like that.'

'Kitara and I started training with Mom when we were both three. She wanted us both to become more powerful than our fathers.'

'Three…Your current age being?'

'I was born about six months before Namek was destroyed, so by your standards, I'm nineteen. Kitara's eighteen.'

The Namek looked mildly surprised. 'Then even for teenage fighters, you should possess a great amount of hidden power.'

Kitara smirked. 'You saying just because we're teenagers we can't fight as well as adults?'

Thankfully Goku managed to rescue the situation. Standing up, he studied the two warriors and nodded slightly. 'Both of you are incredibly powerful, there's no doubt about that. But by our standards, you're still amateurs. What I mean is,' He countered quickly after a glance at their faces, 'There's no way either of you would last against a Super Saiya-jin for more than a minute.'

'Back up, back up, back up…A Super Saiya-jin? There's more than one?' A small crease appeared between Kitara's brows as they knitted together in confusion.

The Super Saiya-jin of Chikyuu nodded. 'Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Vegeta all turned Super Saiya-jin a long time ago. With the number of battles you've been in, there's no reason why you couldn't turn Super Saiya-jin yourself.'

Her eyes widened almost comically. 'Dad? Dad's a…a Super Saiya-jin?! She looked over to Vegeta for confirmation. A simple nod, and she turned back to Goku. I…I could be a Super Saiya-jin too? Like you guys?' The excitement in her voice was infectious. It even managed to bring a fang-laden smile to Piccolo's green features. As for Vegeta…it was rare that someone or something could give him any cheer. Seeing the almost childlike excitement of his eldest daughter, hearing the obvious pride and praise for him in her voice, it warmed his battle-scarred heart.

'It takes a lot to become a Super Saiya-jin.' Gohan warned her. 'Dad and I trained for years to reach that level. And Vegeta had a hell of a time reaching it.'

The Saiya-jin prince resisted the urge to snap back with a retort on third class trash Saiya-jin weaklings. Instead he rose with his customary arrogance and studied his daughter. Coming to a decision, he nodded and placed his hands firmly on her shoulders.

'We will begin at dawn.' He turned his gaze over to the Son males and Trunks. 'All of you will meet here to commence training. Unless of course, facing a Saiya-jin warrioress will be too much for you?'

'Nah.' Goku rose a few feet into the air, Gohan and Goten following in kind. 'We haven't trained like that for ages. It'll be fun!'

Vegeta settled for rolling his eyes in disgust. His gaze turned positively arctic as it moved to Reizoku. 'And you…'

The changeling stared right back, but held his ground. 'What's your problem now? Am I breathing too loud?'

'I want to know how something like you survived for nearly twenty years without intensive training. You will join us. And be grateful I allow you that privilege. Keep this one thing in mind…' His voice dropped to an unpleasant rasp.

'The only reason I will allow you to attend this training is because my daughter wishes it. In my opinion, you're unfit to breathe the same air as her.' Sneering at the changeling prince, Vegeta turned and stomped back into Capsule Corps. Tenshinhan, Kuririn and Yamucha decided as one to beat a hasty retreat, heading off to the south while the Son males and Piccolo headed off north. Trunks, Kitara and Reizoku were soon the only ones left, staring after Vegeta's retreating figure.

'Is Dad always like that?'

'It's about as tolerant as he gets, given the circumstances.' Trunks sighed and shot a slightly helpless look at Reizoku. 'Good luck tomorrow at any rate.'

'Yeah. Looks like we're all gonna need it.'

TBC