Prelude: centuries ago, a conflict raged far from the known universe between two groups of telepaths. One good and one evil, but both using the same techniques to try and beat the other. Eventually the Supreme Kai, one of the few beings alive that could resist the mind tricks of the telepaths, intervened and all seemed to go well for a while. That was until the evil ones re-emerged once more, seeding distrust and contempt throughout the galaxy in preparation of the arrival of the greatest weapon ever. The year is 384 BC and both sides are preparing themselves for the inevitable.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball
Author's note: for my convenience I am changing the date that the Saiyans first set foot on Planet Plant. If you're wondering why, read the story and while your busy doing that, may I remind you that it is only a small effort to leave a review. Thank you for your time and I hope that you enjoy the fic. Also keep in mind that this is written according to the Dragonball timeline, so 384 BC is not around our Classic era.
***D, Y and P*** = Date, year and place
Normal = The story itself along with my other written things I put in it
"..." = Spoken dialogue between characters or with themselves
*...* = Thoughts
[...] = Mental dialogue
***...*** = Dream
*** = Separation between paragraphs
"[...]" = Translated dialogue
*[...]* = Translated thoughts
THE STORY OF TURGAZ
PROLOGUE
***July 3, 384 BC, Planet Plant***
"The day of reckoning is upon us."
A video wall in the abandoned living room five stories up of a Tsufuru family showed the face an elderly man saying these words. A flash of light from outside the house followed the man's last word as if on cue. Seconds later, the flash of light was followed by a wave of pressure generated by an explosion, that shook the entire house. The windows in the house shattered into a thousand pieces as cracks in the walls appeared, all due to the pressure wave. Screams were heard outside followed by more flashes of light, this time without the pressure waves. The screams were silenced. Moments later, a shadow was cast into the living room through the window as a large figure with gravity defying hair hovered before it. He smirked as he raised his right arm and fired a yellow ki beam. An explosion and the living room was turned into a replica of hell. The light that was emitted from the fire lighted the figure up. He wore little more then rags and had a furry tail wrapped around his waist, he was a Saiyan.
In the meantime, flames grew in size as the fire consumed the furniture that situated in the living room and the ceiling was no longer visible, by a dense layer of smoke. The man on the video wall began to speak again.
"Fallen angels of Death and Destruction have been released upon us, just as was foretold by the great Ziener almost five thousand years ago. Yet, not all is lost. WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES!"
The video wall caught the Saiyan's attention as he took a second to figure out what the man on the screen was mumbling about. He didn't figure it out in that second, so he raised his right arm again and fired a yellow ki beam into the video wall as well. It exploded as the figure smirked again.
The heat in the living room rose and flames began to lick the layer of smoke. This would at the very least alarm most firemen, as the situation became much more dangerous. The Saiyan however didn't notice it or didn't care as he raised his right arm to fire another ki beam into the building. The smoke caught fire and the living room was filled with a giant fireball that wanted to go outside. The eyes of the Saiyan grew wide as he saw the fireball moving toward him. Quickly, while letting the ki that had gathered in his hand flow back in his body, he crossed his arms in defensive posture and let out a loud roar. He formed a cone of invisible ki in front of him and let the fireball pass. After this, while letting his defense drop, the Saiyan lowered himself to the ground, where he was awaited by two of his fellow Saiyans. One of them, a muscular female with long unruly black hair and only a head smaller then the first Saiyan, began to speak, while the other, an extremely large Saiyan with only minimal hair on his head, watched with a smug smile on his face.
"[Are you ready with playing Draawz? If so, we could go to the edge of the village were more formidable resistance is sighted.]"
Draawz glared at his woman for the suggestion that his activity had been a waste of time, but then replied.
"[Let's go then, but Anatak count on it that I pay you back for that remark.]"
Draawz noticed a smile form on the face of his woman as he gave his reply, she knew what was coming, Anatak always knew. He shook on his head and took to the air with the other two Saiyans following behind and headed at top speed towards the edge of the village, where almost fifty other Saiyans were already waiting for him, as he was their leader. Once there, Draawz and the other Saiyans became aware of a monotone drone that began to become louder and louder. Soon after, small dots became visible, just barely above the horizon.
"[Flying machines!]"
Draawz agreed with the voice, the dots had to be the flying machines of the small creatures, which looked like young Saiyans. He smirked; this was going to be fun.
***
A young Tsufuru, who wore a blue jumpsuit and a DG (Data Gathering) helmet of a Tsufuru soldier, was securely strapped against the wall of a cargo plane. In his hands he carried his weapon, which looked like an ancient shotgun, but was in fact the latest version the Tsufuru blaster rifle. Nervous sweat was pushed out of his pores and ran down his face. The monotone drone of the airplane's engines filled his ears. He gulped, why did hostile aliens just have to land on this day. The internal speakers came alive
"Ten...nine...eight..." The Tsufuru knew what was next, after all he had practiced it over and over again. "...Seven...six...five..." Yet, this wasn't practice, this was for real. "...Four...three...two..." He performed a short prayer and gulped afterwards. This was it. "...One and detach." A short 'click' sounded through out the cargo hold and was the first and for now only sign that the cargo hold was detached from the airplane itself. Soon after, the Tsufuru felt his stomach go queasy, due to the acceleration towards the ground. Normally he would have loved this part, but now he felt only fear. He was heading down to a battlefield. In his mind he remembered his father's words for him, before he had left home today.
*For your sake, Jacen, I hope that you made the right choice when you joined the army. There will be no place for cowards in the army, after this day.* His father's words sounded in his mind, while he felt the retrorockets kick in.
The cargo hold slowed it's decent and touched down on the ground. Jacen freed himself out of the bindings and removed the safety catch of his weapon. Fear was shoved to the back of his mind as adrenaline took over. He was ready as the doors slowly opened.
"Go, go, go!"
After the order of their commander, the Tsufuru began to sprint out of the cargo hold and formed, once they were outside, a defensive perimeter. It was a standard, yet unnecessary precaution as the whole area was dominated by Tsufuru armed forces. All around them, cargo holds were touching down and troops were embarking. Overhead, atmospheric fighters of the air force flew at top speed towards the enemy lines, while behind them, large cargo planes were landing and unloading their payload of artillery and tanks. The troops waited for several more long minutes, until the last troops had arrived and the long barrels of the artillery rose into the air to open fire. A loud thundering sounded as the artillery opened fire. This was the sign for the infantry and tanks to move forward, towards the awaiting aliens, knowing that the fighters and artillery would have inflicted the enemy heavy casualties by the time that they would arrive at the actual battlefield. Little did they know that as they thought this, the fighters were fighting a losing battle of life and death in an air-to-air duel with the aliens and the artillery had little effect at all.
***
Draawz smirked as he came out of tight corner and shot straight towards one of the metallic flying machines of the enemy, as if to see if the pilot of the machine was up to a game of chicken. The enemy opened fire at him with the machine's energy cannons, but he ignored them as they only inflicted minor burns. Finally, after Draawz almost became respective of the pilot, the flying machine began to turn in order to move out of the way for Draawz. Draawz sighed and zanzokened out of sight, only to reappear behind the machine. He raised his right arm and shot a yellow ki beam into the back of the machine, causing it to explode.
*[The flying machines are fun, but they never form a real challenge.]*
He looked around in search of a better challenge and was disappointed, after he saw some Saiyans finish of the enemy with little effort, to find that the enemy wasn't as strong as he had hoped. A distant thundering sounded and Draawz looked up, just in time to see a shell coming his way. He had no time to prepare a defense and was hit by the shell in the stomach, where it exploded. The force of the impact and more importantly the explosion sent Draawz flying down into the ground.
The sound of laughter broke through the barrier that was formed by the ringing of his ears, as Draawz pulled himself out of the ground. He groaned and shook his head clear, perhaps this enemy was worthy after all. On instinct, Draawz clutched the spot were the shell had slammed into him and exploded. There was no moisture, but it was a bit sour and a good deal of his rags had been torn away on that spot. He grimaced and pulled himself together in order to stand up, it would certainly hurt for awhile but it wasn't anything serious. He looked up and saw that every single Saiyan, who had dared laugh, stopped immediately, fearful for their leader's retribution. All except for one, who dropped to the ground and stood across Draawz some twenty meters away.
"[Which kind of a leader are you, even a leze knows how to dodge that?]"
Draawz glared at the Saiyan that had insulted him. It was clear to him that the Saiyan wanted to challenge him, but he knew that now was not the time. He checked the sky for the enemy and saw none of the flying machines. Instead, he only saw that all Saiyan eyes were focused on him. He sighed, he knew that there was no way out of this without a fight, not for him, so he began to check his challenger, while dropping into a fighting stance that made sure that his weak spot was covered from any attack. The fighting stance triggered a roar of encouragement and applause, but he ignored as he had more important things to do then listen to the others. Draawz's challenger had long black gravity defying hair that stood straight up, a clear sign that he dealt here with an elite fighter, yet his stance was completely wrong. He still had his arms crossed and smiled, confidant of victory. He knew only one, who looked and acted this way, Neorg. Little alarm bells began to sound in the head of Draawz, but he still uttered his reply to the challenge.
"[You and me, now!]"
Another distant thunder sounded and almost all the Saiyans looked up to see if any shells were coming their way. Almost all, two Saiyans remained focused on each other, Draawz and his challenger. Explosive shells exploded around them, none of them hit their intended targets. Dust and smoke carried past them, wind blew through their hair. A few moments later, the wind died down, dust resettled on the ground and the smoke was dispersed. The silence that followed was ear deafening. Tension rose until neither of the two Saiyans could hold themselves back. They shot towards each other and met in a shock wave generating impact. There was no way back, not anymore. Both combatants disappeared from sight.
***
Jacen, alongside his group of fellow soldiers, reached the top of a hill and could for the first time see the actual battlefield, or rather the battle in the air above it. He stopped and stared in a mixture of awe and dread at the scene in front of him. From this distance, fighters harassing the enemy with their energy cannons should have been visible, but there weren't any. Instead small dots, almost fifty in total, filled the sky, joined by an occasional shock wave and energy beam which seemed to have no reason being there.
"Private Jacen Reep get your sorry little ass back in line and move!"
That was his superior speaking, so he hurried his sorry little ass to get back in line, while in the mean time stammering something that was supposed to come out as "Yes sir!"
Once Jacen was back in line, he continued to look at the scene in front of him and his mind began to wander. *What could have happened to the fighters?* That one was supposed to be easy, as it was painfully obvious that the aliens had somehow managed to destroy the fighters. *But how?* He had seen the aliens on images shown during the briefing that had preceded his deployment. They seemed primitive, maybe even to the point that they were still controlled by animal instincts. *Yet they came in space pods. If they were primitive how did manage to make space pods and how did they manage to take the fighters out of the air.* He remembered other images from the briefing. Images of the first attacks the aliens had made. The flashes of energy that they shot mainly out of their hands, but also out of their mouth and eyes. *Could it be that the aliens carried implants, which enabled them to hit even the fastest among targets with devastating force?* The artillery opened fire for the third time.
Jacen looked up from his pondering and saw some of the dots move out of the way for something. Less then a second later, explosions on the ground below the dots, artillery rounds that only succeeded in making more craters. He stopped once more and looked up in the sky, as if answers to his questions were written there. *Could it be that these creatures, things...* He wasn't too sure of the answer anymore. *...Had mastered the art of flying. No, no Tsufuru-like being could ever learn to fly on itself. It defied every law nature had created. Unless the aliens had, next to implants for shooting energy, also implants for...* An order interrupted his thoughts.
"For the last time, Private Jacen Reep get your sorry little ass back in..."
"...Line and move! Yeah, I know." Jacen finished, while he returned his gaze on the position of the enemy.
A big ball of yellow wrongness slowly grew in size just above the middle of his field of vision, where nothing should have been. Realization hit him, just before the order of his superior reached his ears.
"Everyone seek cover, NOW!"
A second later the yellow 'ball', which was actually a ki beam, detonated in the lines of the Tsufurus.
***
*[Okay, that last ki beam was a mistake.]* Draawz thought as he plummeted face down towards the ground below.
He had thought that he would haven been able to surprise Neorg with a ki beam, when he had zanzokened in front of him, but that attempt had been easily thwarted as Neorg had slapped the beam aside and then had grabbed Draawz by his leg and threw him down towards the ground. Normally this wouldn't be much to worry about, but his ki beam had been slapped aside with ease.
*[Why am I so weak?]*
A fist, which was implanted in his stomach, answered his unspoken question. Of course, how could he have forgotten, he thought as his eyes grew wide from shock and pain. He gawked, the exploding shell had apparently done more damage then he had anticipated and now he paid the price, he thought as he doubled over. He paid the price for not being observant enough, not vigilant enough. An elbow in his back and Draawz continued his plummet towards the ground. He hit the ground and rolled on his back. Neorg was already diving down in what looked like a flying kick that would follow the mother of all jumps.
*[No, I shall not lose.]*
No, he would not lose, he could not lose. He was Draawz, the longest reigning male, his group had ever had. He closed his eyes for a moment. Images of his own rise to power appeared before his eyes. His absolute confidence in his victory had been apparent during the entire fight against his predecessor. Just as it now was apparent in Neorg. Yet the similarities didn't end there, most of the fight had gone almost exactly in the same fashion. In both fights, the challenger had dominated and had easily countered almost any attack the leader of the group could throw at him. In both fights, the leader became more desperate with every second that passed by. In both fights the challenger had become overconfident. Draawz eyes shot open again, Neorg was now a lot closer, but he still had all the time that he would need. He convulsed as if he needed to vomit. A yellow light became visible, illuminating the cavity of his mouth. Neorg finally noticed it when Draawz's ki beam was already leaving his mouth, but by then, it was too late to do anything about it. Neorg was swept away by the ki beam towards the upper atmosphere, which gave Draawz precious time to stand up and recover. An eerie silence settled in. All watched as Neorg headed up.
"[Neorg!]"
A heart-wrenching scream broke the silence when a flash of light illuminated the sky. Draawz snapped around in the general direction of the scream and saw that a female Saiyan with unusual blue hair of medium length fly towards the explosion, that had caused the flash of light, kilometers above the surface of the planet.
*[Pathetic thing.]*
But even as his mental curse was still busy transforming into an order, Draawz caught sight of a red ki beam catching up with the blue haired female, who was probably the woman or else a close relative of Neorg. Draawz tracked the beam to its source, even though he had no doubt about whom fired it, the fact that it was red told enough. He was proven right when he found the awaiting pair of eyes of Anatak at the source of the ki beam, watching him. A simple nod, a silent order, given by him and the ki beam exploded. Draawz looked up towards the spot in the sky were his own ki beam had exploded and smirked. He didn't need to check if the blue haired female was still alive, because he knew that Anatak was strong enough to kill any other female in the group. Besides it was the notion of the attack on the female that would drive Neorg over the edge of madness and madness would make him more reckless. Having killed her would only shorten the time that he needed to drive Neorg over the edge. Someone landed beside him.
"[Was this wise?]"
Draawz turned to face Anatak, who was the person that had landed beside him and asked him the question.
"[Why not?]"
Why would it not be wise? He honestly didn't know and he certainly didn't know why Anatak suddenly had doubts about it. It was after all she who shot the ki beam in the first place. Sure, it was him that had finally ordered to let it explode, but still he honestly didn't know why Anatak had suddenly doubts about it. Besides, it was his right as leader, to kill or order to kill those who weren't loyal to him.
"[Think about it, what would you do if I lay there?]" Anatak said while pointing behind Draawz.
Draawz turned around and saw the charred remains of the female lying on the ground. What would he do if that were Anatak? Grief? Turn mad? Beat whoever did it to a bloody pulp, let him recover, then beat him again to a bloody pulp and finally kill him? Obtain the power of the Super Saiyan? The first three, those were certain. The last, he had no idea. Srekam ed had told them that it was possible to achieve, when one had a sufficient amount of power and emotional pain, but what was sufficient power and what was sufficient emotional pain? He became aware of the fact that Anatak was talking again.
"[...We Saiyans, not only gain power through physical pain, but also through mental pain.]"
Draawz nodded, he had only gotten half of the message, but it was still crystal clear. Anatak thought that Neorg would gain an enormous amount of power, due to their action. Well, he thought, if that was the case then so be it, because he wasn't about to quit the plan that could very well be his only chance of survival.
*[But Anatak is always right.]*
He turned around to face Anatak again, ignoring his own thought, that she was right and he should probably not do this.
"[I know that Anatak, but I can't just quit with the plan. If I do that now, this will be the end of the line for us by default.]"
"[Alright then, but don't you dare die on me. You still owe me something.]"
She forcefully kissed him goodbye and rose into the air.
"[Good luck.]"
Draawz smirked and gave her a quick nod. He didn't plan on dying here just yet, but he knew that there certainly was chance that he was going to get killed. He looked away from Anatak, back to the spot in the sky were his ki beam had exploded. A small dot slowly grew in size, while it gained more and more characteristics of a Saiyan, who was bruised and burned. Draawz carefully monitored him while he descended towards the ground. He couldn't detect any weird anomalies that could play up when he broke the news, but that didn't say much on it's own. Neorg still could have some nasty surprises up his sleeve. No, he shouldn't think like this, as it was one thing to be weary for some risks that are always present during a fight, but a totally different thing to overestimate an opponent. Neorg landed on the ground and spoke.
"[Hi, missed me?]"
Draawz was slightly taken aback, by the friendliness in the voice of Neorg. He had expected some angry threat not a question about if he had missed him. He shook his head and smirked, so Neorg wasn't angry yet, no big deal. He would be mad when he was finished with him.
"[Sorry, but I didn't miss you Neorg.]"
Neorg looked at him strangely, clearly he hadn't expected a friendly answer back. Draawz decided that now was as good a time as any to go through with his idea.
"[As you can see next to you, we had some entertainment while you were gone.]" He said while indicating the charred remains of the female some distance to the left of Neorg.
Neorg turned to look as Draawz waited until Neorg had made the connection between his words and the remains of the female. Dread slowly became visible on Neorg's face as he turned away from the remains and checked the sky. His eyes darted back and forward between the various Saiyans that hung in the air, he missed one. Draawz hesitated for a moment before he spoke the next words, as images of him being beaten around like he was only a ragdoll crossed his eyes.
"[You miss someone among them, is it not? Someone who is close to you, is it not Neorg?]"
Neorg looked at him in a mixed expression of shock and horror. Draawz let a smirk form on his face, it was working. Neorg looked at the remains of the female again as his expression changed in one of grieves.
"[No.]"
He ran towards her and fell on his knees next to her, as Draawz watched what was going to happen next. Neorg picked up a lock of blue hair that was by some miracle not destroyed and held it close. He looked up and sought the answer as to why she had to die in Draawz's eyes. Finding nothing, he closed his eyes.
"[Why?]"
He shook his head forcefully in denial; he couldn't believe it just yet. Finally finding an outlet for his anger, Neorg rammed a fist into the ground and blasted in the ground around it a crater as a small blue aura of anger formed around him.
"[NO!]"
He continued to hit the ground with his fists, but the strikes lacked power and had no effect what so ever. The lack of power within Neorg was further evident as the blue aura died down.
"[How...?]"
Neorg's voice was no longer one of a confident challenger. In fact, if his voice was any indication Neorg was far weaker then he had ever been and it made Draawz nervous. It made him wonder if there were more things he had miscalculated. He shrugged it off and decided to make the most of it as he took aim at Neorg. Neorg however had pieced himself together and now reacted as Draawz had originally anticipated. Draawz discharged the attack he was preparing as he saw how Neorg rose up and looked him straight into his eyes.
"[Tell me, How did she die?]"
Neorg's face was set full with murder when he asked what precisely had happened to the female, but still seemed to be able to control himself. Nevertheless his left eye seemed to have developed a twitch and his whole body began to shake more and more with every second. It was only a matter of time, Draawz knew, before Neorg would finally snap. Given that he would now press on.
"[As a weakling. She cried for your help, but no one came to help her.]"
***
Wave after wave of red anger washed over him as Neorg struggled to remain calm. He knew that Draawz's words were meant to make him lose control, but that was the only knowledge he had left to fight against the red waves. Finally after what seemed hours for Neorg, he succeeded in shaking his head clear, so that he could think normal again. He turned his head to look at the remains of his woman. Eyes were closed as he tried to envision her death like Draawz had told him. He tried to envision her as a helpless coward, but he found that he couldn't. Sperina was no coward and that could only mean one thing, Draawz had to be lying. He opened his eyes and looked up to see if the other Saiyans could give him the true answer.
"[The others will confirm what I have told you, but perhaps you're not convinced and you just have to ask them that for yourself.]"
The waves of red anger again began to wash over him as he heard Draawz's challenge to ask the other Saiyans what had really happened. In a small corner of his mind, were he could think clearly, he knew that he couldn't ask it. Draawz had the others behind him, so they would only confirm what Draawz had said. Yet this small corner had little to bring in against the rest of his mind that was already taken by the red waves and so he asked anyway, while the corner prepared it's last defenses.
"[Is it true what Draawz said? Did Sperina cry for my help as she died as a weakling?]"
"[Yes!]" Came the unanimous reply.
So it was true, he thought, at least according to the part of his brain that was already taken by the red waves. No, it wasn't true; this was the small corner speaking that still enabled him to think clearly. What followed was an internal tug of war, between the two parts of Neorg's brain. A tug of war between the raging water and a tiny island struggling for survival and like every single similar struggle before this one, the water eventually won. It wasn't like the tiny island hadn't tried, on the contrary it fought brilliantly, but when fighting a raging water mass nothing could ever truly stop it. And so Neorg was swept away by the red waves, surrendering himself to his rage. Totally oblivious of what followed next, all he would ever know is that Draawz didn't stand much of a chance.
***
Neorg's attack had come with such speed that Draawz didn't know what had hit him, until he had felt the tenth punch and even after that he had a hard time comprehending what in the name of Srekam ed was going on. Blue flames of ki filled his field of vision; it was simply everywhere as it was Neorg's aura of rage. Old lessons about the Super Saiyan filled his head, but he quickly dismissed them. The legend spoke of a golden warrior, not a blue warrior. Nevertheless, that particular piece of information didn't help the situation much. Neorg still gave Draawz the beating of his live, Super Saiyan or not. A ki blast or a fist, Draawz's senses were too overloaded to tell the difference, that send him flying into the air, gave him some moments to think about, how he had gotten in this situation. It seemed so perfect at the time, too perfect he realized now. He had just launched Neorg into the air, when the opportunity had presented itself to permantely tip the balance in his favor. He had been confident that he could take on a maddened Neorg, as Neorg would then become too sloppy to fight reasonably. Yet, when Anatak had spoken, confidence slowly turned into doubt and even though he still fooled himself that this was the best course of action, he had failed to see the truth and to handle accordingly. He should have never had Anatak kill the woman of Neorg. It was too late now. Vaguely he saw in the corner of his left eye Neorg charging a ki beam. On pure instinct, he raised his arms to charge a ki beam of his own, but by the time he had done that, it was already too late. Fueled by his rage and due to the fact that he was stronger then Draawz in his current state to begin with, Neorg charged his ki beam much quicker and fired it before Draawz even had a chance to properly reply Neorg's ki beam. Draawz was hit dead on and was drilled into the ground by the blue beam of anger and while he struggled to remain conscious he wondered why the damn thing just couldn't explode and end his suffering. It finally did that 200 meters underground, where Draawz could've sworn that it was a lot warmer then on the surface, had it not been that Neorg's ki beam had burned his skin to a crisp and thus disabled his ability to properly sense the temperature of his environment. With his last strength he could look up towards the outside world, were he saw that a blue light was coming his way, before everything became black.
*[The pain, but at the same time total numbness.]*
He wondered, if this is how death felt.
***
For the past few minutes, Anatak could only watch in horror as Neorg seemed to have taken on the job of excavating Draawz personally, with thousands of tiny blue ki balls swung down in the general direction of the hole in which Draawz had been drilled. She wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't. She was simply too terrified to do anything else then hangs in the air, watching in horror at Neorg's show of power and mostly madness like everyone else. She began to wonder. She began to wonder what would have happened if she hadn't shot that ki beam, what would have happened if she hadn't spoken so doubtful about the plan that Draawz had conjured up. She found that she could only blame herself. She looked down and saw that the ground appeared to become closer. For some reason, she was slowly dropping down towards the ground. She found that it was her own guilt that dropped her towards the ground. By Srekam ed, she wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't. She thought of the children Draawz and she had. The children, who were safely in a crèche away from the madness of battle, like every other Saiyan child of the group. The children, who would have to live on without a father and probably a mother too, if the others would tell Neorg the full story after the confirmation of Draawz's death. She wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't and therefor she looked up, towards the other Saiyans. She touched the ground and her strain of thoughts and emotions ended abruptly. Something had changed.
Three Saiyan males had gotten out of their almost zombie-like state and all charged a ki beam of their own. Anatak knew them; they were the males that had made it possible for Draawz to make his leap for control. They were the males that had helped Draawz run the group whenever things became unstable. They were the males that had always been Draawz's most trusted friends. Well actually two were, Anatak noticed that the third was the eldest son of one of them. She smirked like Draawz had done so many times and jumped to join them, but then realized the true reason why she couldn't help Draawz before. To help someone in a fight, especially an important fight like this one, was to ensure that the rest of the group never again respected that person. She halted in mid air and shouted.
"[Stop!]"
The shout came as such a surprise that the three males actually listened and stopped charging their ki beams. They looked down as Anatak came up to their own level. Two of them, the elder ones, already began to realize why she had called them to a halt. Third and youngest however didn't.
"[Why?]" He asked as Anatak reached their level and the three males looked up.
"[Simple, you can't and you may not help someone in a fight and that goes certainly for a fight of this importance. If we would've done what we were planning, it would not only be the end for Draawz, but also for us.]"
The answer given by Anatak was clear and simple; she explained what she realized only just before. The two elder males looked somewhat ashamed by the fact that they didn't realize this themselves, but the youngest was not about to admit his defeat just yet.
"[But we must help Draawz. We'll die anyway if he dies."
The argument was weak and everyone knew this, but Anatak still took the time to explain it to the young male.
"[Look, there are two possibilities here. Draawz is dead already or not. If he is dead then we're in big trouble anyhow, if not then I believe that he still has a large chance to win this.]"
She pointed at Neorg while she said it. It was costing Neorg enormous amounts of ki to do what he did and if Draawz was still alive and conscious he should still have a chance to beat Neorg, if not everything was lost as it was. The young male finally admitted it to as he looked towards Neorg, who had adjusted his strategy. Instead of shooting countless small ki balls, he now shot large ki beams at a far slower rate.
"[Good, Neorg is becoming tired.]"
All four Saiyans were in agreement. Neorg did indeed appear to become tired. Nevertheless, the result of his attack was indeed impressive. A massive crater of over 150 meters deep and still deepening with every blast, now was on the spot were Draawz had been drilled in the ground. How anything could have survived that, no one knew and thus Anatak's hope left her entirely.
***
I am not dead, that was the conclusion Draawz had drawn after several more minutes in the dark environment he was currently in. Sure, he was severely beaten and bruised, burned to a crisp and he was pretty sure that at least more bones were broken in his body then he had fingers, but he still lived. Well lived, any member of any other species, other then a few species with regeneration capabilities rivaling those of a little known race called Namekians, would have died along time ago, but he still breathed, even if it did hurt with every breath he took. Of course the pain was another give away that he was still alive, next to the fact that he heard his heart beating almost as loud as the what he assumed was once a barrage of ki blasts, which had slowed down considerable in the last minute and had become a awful lot louder. And there was this thing that he could still think all this, which was a feat on it's own given the beating that he had received minutes earlier. Yes, he was definitely alive, but for how long. He was pretty sure that whoever was busy above him, heck everything was above him but that was not the point, was Neorg and that meant that he probably wouldn't have another minute to live, once he was out here. Out here, Draawz wondered how the 'out here' was going to be like. If he was going to see a ray of light entering the dark 'chamber' in which he lay, if there was a large explosion consuming his live and the environment or if Neorg was simply going to stick his head in the chamber and say hi.
Less then a minute later he got his answer, it was none of the three options that he had given himself. There was a large explosion, but it never reached far enough to destroy the entire chamber. Instead it only destroyed a little over half the chamber, leaving Draawz lying in what looked like a dinner plate for a giant. A dinner plate filled with dust and smoke that is and a Saiyan who was about medium done. These and other strange thoughts came up in Draawz as he waited for the smoke to disappear and the dust to settle. Luckily for his sanity he didn't have to wait long, then again, what he saw next wasn't exactly good for him either. He was in the middle of a giant crater, which was littered on the bottom with craters. He had never ever seen anything like this in his life and he wondered if anyone had ever seen anything truly like this. He was a child again, staring in amazement at the whole environment around him, while he remained lying in his own 'dinner plate'. An explosion shook him out of it as he realized the danger of the predicament he was in. He slowly and mostly painfully stood up and looked up, all those 200 meter plus an additional hundred meter or so up, were Neorg charged another blue ki beam. His eyes widened as he saw the ki beam coming straight at him and he crossed his arms before him, for whatever his defense was still worth. The ki beam however never did hit him as it vanished without a trace from sight. Draawz let out the air in longs, from which he hadn't even realized that he was holding it. His relieve didn't last long as he saw a small dot coming down, Neorg had decided that he would finish him off without some distant ki beam. Images of being tortured filled his mind.
***
Yet Draawz's images of torture were only present in his own mind, Neorg himself didn't have any thoughts currently that were even remotely similar to those of Draawz. No, Neorg wasn't currently thinking about death, pain and torture of his opponent, he was thinking about how to get down without falling to an embarrassing death. His storm of ki that he had used to reach Draawz had left him drained to the point that he had no longer enough ki left to even keep himself aloft in the air and so he was falling slowly down towards the ground. He went passed the edge of the crater that he had created and knew that he should have landed there. The crater was after all another 200 meters deeper. He went past a group of midgets carrying small arms on their back, but they didn't even register in his mind as he was still trying to figure out how he was going to survive the fall. He was halfway down the crater when he noticed that he wasn't accelerating in the way, as was normally the case in a fall. He was more less coming down in a constant speed. So he still had some ki left, his hope raised. He was about 50 meters above the bottom of the crater when he became aware of a stinging sensation, not from below, but from above. He closed his eyes and fell past the midgets again, he cursed himself. The stinging sensation stopped and moments later the fall was disabled from continuing by the ground. The world had gained a lot more similarity with a bagpipe, when he opened his eyes again and he would have noticed that too, if he knew what a bagpipe was.
*[So no shameful death for me.]*
So he hadn't yet died, but that was about the only positive point to the situation. He saw three Saiyans stand in front of him. All looked alike, all looked like a badly injured Draawz.
"[What happened to you guys?]"
The stinging sensation returned.
***
Draawz now began to seriously question his own sanity. Had he just heard Neorg ask, what had happened to him in multitude? He blinked and when he looked again, the golden rays that had made contact with Neorg earlier in his fall where back. One shot towards him and did manage to hit him on a spot of his left arm where he wasn't burned yet; it felt like one of those energy beams that the flying machines of the enemy shot. He looked at his arm and then back at Neorg, who was slowly consumed by the rays.
*[Why doesn't he do something?]*
Why didn't Neorg do something, Draawz wondered. He then remembered the drop of Neorg into the crater that had been far to fast, Neorg's inability to do anything about the first rays and the impact with the crater floor. Could it be that his plan had actually worked, that Neorg didn't have any usable ki left. Could it have been that he could have won. Probably yes, he still had, despite his state, enough ki left to fight. Anger began to grow inside of him as he looked up to see if other Saiyans were watching. He could have won, he thought. There were Saiyans watching, some of which were already leaving. This fueled his anger, but he couldn't be angry with them. All they saw was that Neorg had beaten him around and now was being killed by someone other then him. For all the information they had gotten, everything pointed to the fact that Neorg was the better fighter and he, their leader before this fight needed help to beat Neorg. Yet he didn't need help, he knew, he didn't need help to beat Neorg and that left him angry with those who had dared to interfere. The rays stopped and Draawz looked down. There was no way that Neorg would have survived the attack that he had just endured, judging by the injuries he had sustained. Draawz shook his head, some part in his brain was saddened by this all, but that was not it. It was perfectly normal to be sad when you lost almost everything, while you could have kept everything. No, the anger that had been building for some time now, turned into something much more deadly, cold hatred. The golden rays that had been so lethal for Neorg now made contact with him, but it didn't bother him, as he was no longer there. The rays stopped as Draawz's after image slowly disappeared. The enemy didn't get much time to think about what happened however; Draawz reappeared above them and fired a ki beam. They never knew what exactly hit them as some where flung away by the force of the explosion, others were instantly killed by the blast and those who had survived, well they just didn't get the time to think about what just happened. A second ki beam made sure that they were finished of. Yet the golden rays returned, this time from the edge of the crater where armored vehicles stood, with alongside them more of the small creatures. Draawz powered up a third ki beam and fired it. The beam went wide, but another, a red one, did hit the enemy formation and exploded. Two more beams did hit the enemy formation, but Draawz no longer picked it up. His injuries finally got the better of him and he slipped into unconsciousness, but not before he saw a female diving towards him.
***
Jacen was strapped against the wall of a cargo plane; he was heading back to his base. They had won the battle and the enemy had fled, but it didn't feel like a victory according to Jacen. He had always thought that victory was a blissful state of happiness, one that you could share with friends during a large party of some kind, but this one didn't feel like that all. It wasn't a blissful state of happiness, because he had to many questions about what had happened. Yet the questions wasn't the main reason that he wasn't in a blissful state, as he looked around to see the rest of the occupants of the plane. Twice he had experienced the awesome power of the enemy's energy beams. Twice he had survived the attack by some fluke of fortune, but during those two attacks, he had lost most of the friends he had. Some victory this was. Nevertheless, his father would be proud. He wasn't a coward, not anymore, because tomorrow he would go hunting. He would go and hunt down every single member of whatever species had set its ugly foot on planet Plant and kill him or her with the utmost pleasure that possible.
***
When Draawz came back into the land of the conscious, things had changed. He didn't know it yet, but it was true. The position that he had held, until the moment that the small creatures had finished off Neorg, was not his anymore. It wasn't anyone's position anymore as the group had ceased to be. After the death of Neorg, small flocks of Saiyans, mostly friends of each other had broken off of the main group and were starting a whole new existence away from the battle. Away from the hectic and constant present politics of the main group. Once this had started more and more groups had left until finally only five Saiyans and their children had remained under Draawz's rule. Yet Draawz's fall from power didn't end there, all though the next step was only temporarily. Anatak had namely chosen, while Draawz was still unconscious, to withdraw even from the small group that still choose to follow Draawz, but not before she promised that they would return when Draawz had healed. Of course, when Draawz opened his eyes and looked around in the cave where he was resting, he had no idea of that this all had happened, but he would learn about this later as it was first time for something else. The children had discovered that he had awakened. Three little Saiyans stormed towards him, two identical boys, both eight Earth years old and a five Earth years old girl.
"[Daddy!]" All yelled as they jumped on Draawz.
Draawz grunted in reply, he was far from recovered from the injuries he had sustained. He could not have been recovered from his wounds, as they were still only a couple of hours old.
"[How are you, daddy?]"
His daughter asked if he was all right and Draawz smiled, the only answer he had enough strength for. He knew that he was going to be all right eventually, he just needed some rest.
"[Come, let's leave your father for the moment alone. He needs his rest.]"
Anatak had appeared in the mouth of the cave and called the children. She was right of course, he needed his rest, but it had been nice to see them. He hadn't seen them since, well since just before the battle had started. Whenever that had been. He had no knowledge of time as he had no reverence. He closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep. He didn't even notice the children leaving. He didn't notice that Anatak stayed after the children had left, waiting for the time that he would fulfill the promise that he had made earlier this day. Before everything had gone wrong.
***July 3, 384 BC, Outer reaches of the Plant system***
A large ship shaped like a triangle floated in the silent reaches of space. On board where four roughly humanoid beings, about the size of a Tsufuru, with no hair, pale skin and large black eyes. They were known to the Saiyans as Srekam ed, the Creators, but they themselves didn't give a damn about this title. They were here to ensure that everything went according to plan, nothing more and nothing less. That the Saiyans looked at them as what technically were was of little concern to them. The Saiyans were only one part of the plan.
"[Maximum dispersion reached. The insertion is a success.]"
One of the beings, standing at the sensor console, gave the preliminary reports about the spread of the Saiyans. It was good, according to the captain.
"[Good.]"
They would remain here for some time to come. All the while, closely monitoring the Saiyans that they brought here. Ensuring that the Saiyans would have a good springboard for their plan.
***
Author's note: Well it became a lot longer then I expected, but that is not disaster or anything. As for the Saiyans and the aliens, yes I 'translated' their language. You will know why I gave the Saiyans another language then English, as it is an important plot point.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball
Author's note: for my convenience I am changing the date that the Saiyans first set foot on Planet Plant. If you're wondering why, read the story and while your busy doing that, may I remind you that it is only a small effort to leave a review. Thank you for your time and I hope that you enjoy the fic. Also keep in mind that this is written according to the Dragonball timeline, so 384 BC is not around our Classic era.
***D, Y and P*** = Date, year and place
Normal = The story itself along with my other written things I put in it
"..." = Spoken dialogue between characters or with themselves
*...* = Thoughts
[...] = Mental dialogue
***...*** = Dream
*** = Separation between paragraphs
"[...]" = Translated dialogue
*[...]* = Translated thoughts
THE STORY OF TURGAZ
PROLOGUE
***July 3, 384 BC, Planet Plant***
"The day of reckoning is upon us."
A video wall in the abandoned living room five stories up of a Tsufuru family showed the face an elderly man saying these words. A flash of light from outside the house followed the man's last word as if on cue. Seconds later, the flash of light was followed by a wave of pressure generated by an explosion, that shook the entire house. The windows in the house shattered into a thousand pieces as cracks in the walls appeared, all due to the pressure wave. Screams were heard outside followed by more flashes of light, this time without the pressure waves. The screams were silenced. Moments later, a shadow was cast into the living room through the window as a large figure with gravity defying hair hovered before it. He smirked as he raised his right arm and fired a yellow ki beam. An explosion and the living room was turned into a replica of hell. The light that was emitted from the fire lighted the figure up. He wore little more then rags and had a furry tail wrapped around his waist, he was a Saiyan.
In the meantime, flames grew in size as the fire consumed the furniture that situated in the living room and the ceiling was no longer visible, by a dense layer of smoke. The man on the video wall began to speak again.
"Fallen angels of Death and Destruction have been released upon us, just as was foretold by the great Ziener almost five thousand years ago. Yet, not all is lost. WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES!"
The video wall caught the Saiyan's attention as he took a second to figure out what the man on the screen was mumbling about. He didn't figure it out in that second, so he raised his right arm again and fired a yellow ki beam into the video wall as well. It exploded as the figure smirked again.
The heat in the living room rose and flames began to lick the layer of smoke. This would at the very least alarm most firemen, as the situation became much more dangerous. The Saiyan however didn't notice it or didn't care as he raised his right arm to fire another ki beam into the building. The smoke caught fire and the living room was filled with a giant fireball that wanted to go outside. The eyes of the Saiyan grew wide as he saw the fireball moving toward him. Quickly, while letting the ki that had gathered in his hand flow back in his body, he crossed his arms in defensive posture and let out a loud roar. He formed a cone of invisible ki in front of him and let the fireball pass. After this, while letting his defense drop, the Saiyan lowered himself to the ground, where he was awaited by two of his fellow Saiyans. One of them, a muscular female with long unruly black hair and only a head smaller then the first Saiyan, began to speak, while the other, an extremely large Saiyan with only minimal hair on his head, watched with a smug smile on his face.
"[Are you ready with playing Draawz? If so, we could go to the edge of the village were more formidable resistance is sighted.]"
Draawz glared at his woman for the suggestion that his activity had been a waste of time, but then replied.
"[Let's go then, but Anatak count on it that I pay you back for that remark.]"
Draawz noticed a smile form on the face of his woman as he gave his reply, she knew what was coming, Anatak always knew. He shook on his head and took to the air with the other two Saiyans following behind and headed at top speed towards the edge of the village, where almost fifty other Saiyans were already waiting for him, as he was their leader. Once there, Draawz and the other Saiyans became aware of a monotone drone that began to become louder and louder. Soon after, small dots became visible, just barely above the horizon.
"[Flying machines!]"
Draawz agreed with the voice, the dots had to be the flying machines of the small creatures, which looked like young Saiyans. He smirked; this was going to be fun.
***
A young Tsufuru, who wore a blue jumpsuit and a DG (Data Gathering) helmet of a Tsufuru soldier, was securely strapped against the wall of a cargo plane. In his hands he carried his weapon, which looked like an ancient shotgun, but was in fact the latest version the Tsufuru blaster rifle. Nervous sweat was pushed out of his pores and ran down his face. The monotone drone of the airplane's engines filled his ears. He gulped, why did hostile aliens just have to land on this day. The internal speakers came alive
"Ten...nine...eight..." The Tsufuru knew what was next, after all he had practiced it over and over again. "...Seven...six...five..." Yet, this wasn't practice, this was for real. "...Four...three...two..." He performed a short prayer and gulped afterwards. This was it. "...One and detach." A short 'click' sounded through out the cargo hold and was the first and for now only sign that the cargo hold was detached from the airplane itself. Soon after, the Tsufuru felt his stomach go queasy, due to the acceleration towards the ground. Normally he would have loved this part, but now he felt only fear. He was heading down to a battlefield. In his mind he remembered his father's words for him, before he had left home today.
*For your sake, Jacen, I hope that you made the right choice when you joined the army. There will be no place for cowards in the army, after this day.* His father's words sounded in his mind, while he felt the retrorockets kick in.
The cargo hold slowed it's decent and touched down on the ground. Jacen freed himself out of the bindings and removed the safety catch of his weapon. Fear was shoved to the back of his mind as adrenaline took over. He was ready as the doors slowly opened.
"Go, go, go!"
After the order of their commander, the Tsufuru began to sprint out of the cargo hold and formed, once they were outside, a defensive perimeter. It was a standard, yet unnecessary precaution as the whole area was dominated by Tsufuru armed forces. All around them, cargo holds were touching down and troops were embarking. Overhead, atmospheric fighters of the air force flew at top speed towards the enemy lines, while behind them, large cargo planes were landing and unloading their payload of artillery and tanks. The troops waited for several more long minutes, until the last troops had arrived and the long barrels of the artillery rose into the air to open fire. A loud thundering sounded as the artillery opened fire. This was the sign for the infantry and tanks to move forward, towards the awaiting aliens, knowing that the fighters and artillery would have inflicted the enemy heavy casualties by the time that they would arrive at the actual battlefield. Little did they know that as they thought this, the fighters were fighting a losing battle of life and death in an air-to-air duel with the aliens and the artillery had little effect at all.
***
Draawz smirked as he came out of tight corner and shot straight towards one of the metallic flying machines of the enemy, as if to see if the pilot of the machine was up to a game of chicken. The enemy opened fire at him with the machine's energy cannons, but he ignored them as they only inflicted minor burns. Finally, after Draawz almost became respective of the pilot, the flying machine began to turn in order to move out of the way for Draawz. Draawz sighed and zanzokened out of sight, only to reappear behind the machine. He raised his right arm and shot a yellow ki beam into the back of the machine, causing it to explode.
*[The flying machines are fun, but they never form a real challenge.]*
He looked around in search of a better challenge and was disappointed, after he saw some Saiyans finish of the enemy with little effort, to find that the enemy wasn't as strong as he had hoped. A distant thundering sounded and Draawz looked up, just in time to see a shell coming his way. He had no time to prepare a defense and was hit by the shell in the stomach, where it exploded. The force of the impact and more importantly the explosion sent Draawz flying down into the ground.
The sound of laughter broke through the barrier that was formed by the ringing of his ears, as Draawz pulled himself out of the ground. He groaned and shook his head clear, perhaps this enemy was worthy after all. On instinct, Draawz clutched the spot were the shell had slammed into him and exploded. There was no moisture, but it was a bit sour and a good deal of his rags had been torn away on that spot. He grimaced and pulled himself together in order to stand up, it would certainly hurt for awhile but it wasn't anything serious. He looked up and saw that every single Saiyan, who had dared laugh, stopped immediately, fearful for their leader's retribution. All except for one, who dropped to the ground and stood across Draawz some twenty meters away.
"[Which kind of a leader are you, even a leze knows how to dodge that?]"
Draawz glared at the Saiyan that had insulted him. It was clear to him that the Saiyan wanted to challenge him, but he knew that now was not the time. He checked the sky for the enemy and saw none of the flying machines. Instead, he only saw that all Saiyan eyes were focused on him. He sighed, he knew that there was no way out of this without a fight, not for him, so he began to check his challenger, while dropping into a fighting stance that made sure that his weak spot was covered from any attack. The fighting stance triggered a roar of encouragement and applause, but he ignored as he had more important things to do then listen to the others. Draawz's challenger had long black gravity defying hair that stood straight up, a clear sign that he dealt here with an elite fighter, yet his stance was completely wrong. He still had his arms crossed and smiled, confidant of victory. He knew only one, who looked and acted this way, Neorg. Little alarm bells began to sound in the head of Draawz, but he still uttered his reply to the challenge.
"[You and me, now!]"
Another distant thunder sounded and almost all the Saiyans looked up to see if any shells were coming their way. Almost all, two Saiyans remained focused on each other, Draawz and his challenger. Explosive shells exploded around them, none of them hit their intended targets. Dust and smoke carried past them, wind blew through their hair. A few moments later, the wind died down, dust resettled on the ground and the smoke was dispersed. The silence that followed was ear deafening. Tension rose until neither of the two Saiyans could hold themselves back. They shot towards each other and met in a shock wave generating impact. There was no way back, not anymore. Both combatants disappeared from sight.
***
Jacen, alongside his group of fellow soldiers, reached the top of a hill and could for the first time see the actual battlefield, or rather the battle in the air above it. He stopped and stared in a mixture of awe and dread at the scene in front of him. From this distance, fighters harassing the enemy with their energy cannons should have been visible, but there weren't any. Instead small dots, almost fifty in total, filled the sky, joined by an occasional shock wave and energy beam which seemed to have no reason being there.
"Private Jacen Reep get your sorry little ass back in line and move!"
That was his superior speaking, so he hurried his sorry little ass to get back in line, while in the mean time stammering something that was supposed to come out as "Yes sir!"
Once Jacen was back in line, he continued to look at the scene in front of him and his mind began to wander. *What could have happened to the fighters?* That one was supposed to be easy, as it was painfully obvious that the aliens had somehow managed to destroy the fighters. *But how?* He had seen the aliens on images shown during the briefing that had preceded his deployment. They seemed primitive, maybe even to the point that they were still controlled by animal instincts. *Yet they came in space pods. If they were primitive how did manage to make space pods and how did they manage to take the fighters out of the air.* He remembered other images from the briefing. Images of the first attacks the aliens had made. The flashes of energy that they shot mainly out of their hands, but also out of their mouth and eyes. *Could it be that the aliens carried implants, which enabled them to hit even the fastest among targets with devastating force?* The artillery opened fire for the third time.
Jacen looked up from his pondering and saw some of the dots move out of the way for something. Less then a second later, explosions on the ground below the dots, artillery rounds that only succeeded in making more craters. He stopped once more and looked up in the sky, as if answers to his questions were written there. *Could it be that these creatures, things...* He wasn't too sure of the answer anymore. *...Had mastered the art of flying. No, no Tsufuru-like being could ever learn to fly on itself. It defied every law nature had created. Unless the aliens had, next to implants for shooting energy, also implants for...* An order interrupted his thoughts.
"For the last time, Private Jacen Reep get your sorry little ass back in..."
"...Line and move! Yeah, I know." Jacen finished, while he returned his gaze on the position of the enemy.
A big ball of yellow wrongness slowly grew in size just above the middle of his field of vision, where nothing should have been. Realization hit him, just before the order of his superior reached his ears.
"Everyone seek cover, NOW!"
A second later the yellow 'ball', which was actually a ki beam, detonated in the lines of the Tsufurus.
***
*[Okay, that last ki beam was a mistake.]* Draawz thought as he plummeted face down towards the ground below.
He had thought that he would haven been able to surprise Neorg with a ki beam, when he had zanzokened in front of him, but that attempt had been easily thwarted as Neorg had slapped the beam aside and then had grabbed Draawz by his leg and threw him down towards the ground. Normally this wouldn't be much to worry about, but his ki beam had been slapped aside with ease.
*[Why am I so weak?]*
A fist, which was implanted in his stomach, answered his unspoken question. Of course, how could he have forgotten, he thought as his eyes grew wide from shock and pain. He gawked, the exploding shell had apparently done more damage then he had anticipated and now he paid the price, he thought as he doubled over. He paid the price for not being observant enough, not vigilant enough. An elbow in his back and Draawz continued his plummet towards the ground. He hit the ground and rolled on his back. Neorg was already diving down in what looked like a flying kick that would follow the mother of all jumps.
*[No, I shall not lose.]*
No, he would not lose, he could not lose. He was Draawz, the longest reigning male, his group had ever had. He closed his eyes for a moment. Images of his own rise to power appeared before his eyes. His absolute confidence in his victory had been apparent during the entire fight against his predecessor. Just as it now was apparent in Neorg. Yet the similarities didn't end there, most of the fight had gone almost exactly in the same fashion. In both fights, the challenger had dominated and had easily countered almost any attack the leader of the group could throw at him. In both fights, the leader became more desperate with every second that passed by. In both fights the challenger had become overconfident. Draawz eyes shot open again, Neorg was now a lot closer, but he still had all the time that he would need. He convulsed as if he needed to vomit. A yellow light became visible, illuminating the cavity of his mouth. Neorg finally noticed it when Draawz's ki beam was already leaving his mouth, but by then, it was too late to do anything about it. Neorg was swept away by the ki beam towards the upper atmosphere, which gave Draawz precious time to stand up and recover. An eerie silence settled in. All watched as Neorg headed up.
"[Neorg!]"
A heart-wrenching scream broke the silence when a flash of light illuminated the sky. Draawz snapped around in the general direction of the scream and saw that a female Saiyan with unusual blue hair of medium length fly towards the explosion, that had caused the flash of light, kilometers above the surface of the planet.
*[Pathetic thing.]*
But even as his mental curse was still busy transforming into an order, Draawz caught sight of a red ki beam catching up with the blue haired female, who was probably the woman or else a close relative of Neorg. Draawz tracked the beam to its source, even though he had no doubt about whom fired it, the fact that it was red told enough. He was proven right when he found the awaiting pair of eyes of Anatak at the source of the ki beam, watching him. A simple nod, a silent order, given by him and the ki beam exploded. Draawz looked up towards the spot in the sky were his own ki beam had exploded and smirked. He didn't need to check if the blue haired female was still alive, because he knew that Anatak was strong enough to kill any other female in the group. Besides it was the notion of the attack on the female that would drive Neorg over the edge of madness and madness would make him more reckless. Having killed her would only shorten the time that he needed to drive Neorg over the edge. Someone landed beside him.
"[Was this wise?]"
Draawz turned to face Anatak, who was the person that had landed beside him and asked him the question.
"[Why not?]"
Why would it not be wise? He honestly didn't know and he certainly didn't know why Anatak suddenly had doubts about it. It was after all she who shot the ki beam in the first place. Sure, it was him that had finally ordered to let it explode, but still he honestly didn't know why Anatak had suddenly doubts about it. Besides, it was his right as leader, to kill or order to kill those who weren't loyal to him.
"[Think about it, what would you do if I lay there?]" Anatak said while pointing behind Draawz.
Draawz turned around and saw the charred remains of the female lying on the ground. What would he do if that were Anatak? Grief? Turn mad? Beat whoever did it to a bloody pulp, let him recover, then beat him again to a bloody pulp and finally kill him? Obtain the power of the Super Saiyan? The first three, those were certain. The last, he had no idea. Srekam ed had told them that it was possible to achieve, when one had a sufficient amount of power and emotional pain, but what was sufficient power and what was sufficient emotional pain? He became aware of the fact that Anatak was talking again.
"[...We Saiyans, not only gain power through physical pain, but also through mental pain.]"
Draawz nodded, he had only gotten half of the message, but it was still crystal clear. Anatak thought that Neorg would gain an enormous amount of power, due to their action. Well, he thought, if that was the case then so be it, because he wasn't about to quit the plan that could very well be his only chance of survival.
*[But Anatak is always right.]*
He turned around to face Anatak again, ignoring his own thought, that she was right and he should probably not do this.
"[I know that Anatak, but I can't just quit with the plan. If I do that now, this will be the end of the line for us by default.]"
"[Alright then, but don't you dare die on me. You still owe me something.]"
She forcefully kissed him goodbye and rose into the air.
"[Good luck.]"
Draawz smirked and gave her a quick nod. He didn't plan on dying here just yet, but he knew that there certainly was chance that he was going to get killed. He looked away from Anatak, back to the spot in the sky were his ki beam had exploded. A small dot slowly grew in size, while it gained more and more characteristics of a Saiyan, who was bruised and burned. Draawz carefully monitored him while he descended towards the ground. He couldn't detect any weird anomalies that could play up when he broke the news, but that didn't say much on it's own. Neorg still could have some nasty surprises up his sleeve. No, he shouldn't think like this, as it was one thing to be weary for some risks that are always present during a fight, but a totally different thing to overestimate an opponent. Neorg landed on the ground and spoke.
"[Hi, missed me?]"
Draawz was slightly taken aback, by the friendliness in the voice of Neorg. He had expected some angry threat not a question about if he had missed him. He shook his head and smirked, so Neorg wasn't angry yet, no big deal. He would be mad when he was finished with him.
"[Sorry, but I didn't miss you Neorg.]"
Neorg looked at him strangely, clearly he hadn't expected a friendly answer back. Draawz decided that now was as good a time as any to go through with his idea.
"[As you can see next to you, we had some entertainment while you were gone.]" He said while indicating the charred remains of the female some distance to the left of Neorg.
Neorg turned to look as Draawz waited until Neorg had made the connection between his words and the remains of the female. Dread slowly became visible on Neorg's face as he turned away from the remains and checked the sky. His eyes darted back and forward between the various Saiyans that hung in the air, he missed one. Draawz hesitated for a moment before he spoke the next words, as images of him being beaten around like he was only a ragdoll crossed his eyes.
"[You miss someone among them, is it not? Someone who is close to you, is it not Neorg?]"
Neorg looked at him in a mixed expression of shock and horror. Draawz let a smirk form on his face, it was working. Neorg looked at the remains of the female again as his expression changed in one of grieves.
"[No.]"
He ran towards her and fell on his knees next to her, as Draawz watched what was going to happen next. Neorg picked up a lock of blue hair that was by some miracle not destroyed and held it close. He looked up and sought the answer as to why she had to die in Draawz's eyes. Finding nothing, he closed his eyes.
"[Why?]"
He shook his head forcefully in denial; he couldn't believe it just yet. Finally finding an outlet for his anger, Neorg rammed a fist into the ground and blasted in the ground around it a crater as a small blue aura of anger formed around him.
"[NO!]"
He continued to hit the ground with his fists, but the strikes lacked power and had no effect what so ever. The lack of power within Neorg was further evident as the blue aura died down.
"[How...?]"
Neorg's voice was no longer one of a confident challenger. In fact, if his voice was any indication Neorg was far weaker then he had ever been and it made Draawz nervous. It made him wonder if there were more things he had miscalculated. He shrugged it off and decided to make the most of it as he took aim at Neorg. Neorg however had pieced himself together and now reacted as Draawz had originally anticipated. Draawz discharged the attack he was preparing as he saw how Neorg rose up and looked him straight into his eyes.
"[Tell me, How did she die?]"
Neorg's face was set full with murder when he asked what precisely had happened to the female, but still seemed to be able to control himself. Nevertheless his left eye seemed to have developed a twitch and his whole body began to shake more and more with every second. It was only a matter of time, Draawz knew, before Neorg would finally snap. Given that he would now press on.
"[As a weakling. She cried for your help, but no one came to help her.]"
***
Wave after wave of red anger washed over him as Neorg struggled to remain calm. He knew that Draawz's words were meant to make him lose control, but that was the only knowledge he had left to fight against the red waves. Finally after what seemed hours for Neorg, he succeeded in shaking his head clear, so that he could think normal again. He turned his head to look at the remains of his woman. Eyes were closed as he tried to envision her death like Draawz had told him. He tried to envision her as a helpless coward, but he found that he couldn't. Sperina was no coward and that could only mean one thing, Draawz had to be lying. He opened his eyes and looked up to see if the other Saiyans could give him the true answer.
"[The others will confirm what I have told you, but perhaps you're not convinced and you just have to ask them that for yourself.]"
The waves of red anger again began to wash over him as he heard Draawz's challenge to ask the other Saiyans what had really happened. In a small corner of his mind, were he could think clearly, he knew that he couldn't ask it. Draawz had the others behind him, so they would only confirm what Draawz had said. Yet this small corner had little to bring in against the rest of his mind that was already taken by the red waves and so he asked anyway, while the corner prepared it's last defenses.
"[Is it true what Draawz said? Did Sperina cry for my help as she died as a weakling?]"
"[Yes!]" Came the unanimous reply.
So it was true, he thought, at least according to the part of his brain that was already taken by the red waves. No, it wasn't true; this was the small corner speaking that still enabled him to think clearly. What followed was an internal tug of war, between the two parts of Neorg's brain. A tug of war between the raging water and a tiny island struggling for survival and like every single similar struggle before this one, the water eventually won. It wasn't like the tiny island hadn't tried, on the contrary it fought brilliantly, but when fighting a raging water mass nothing could ever truly stop it. And so Neorg was swept away by the red waves, surrendering himself to his rage. Totally oblivious of what followed next, all he would ever know is that Draawz didn't stand much of a chance.
***
Neorg's attack had come with such speed that Draawz didn't know what had hit him, until he had felt the tenth punch and even after that he had a hard time comprehending what in the name of Srekam ed was going on. Blue flames of ki filled his field of vision; it was simply everywhere as it was Neorg's aura of rage. Old lessons about the Super Saiyan filled his head, but he quickly dismissed them. The legend spoke of a golden warrior, not a blue warrior. Nevertheless, that particular piece of information didn't help the situation much. Neorg still gave Draawz the beating of his live, Super Saiyan or not. A ki blast or a fist, Draawz's senses were too overloaded to tell the difference, that send him flying into the air, gave him some moments to think about, how he had gotten in this situation. It seemed so perfect at the time, too perfect he realized now. He had just launched Neorg into the air, when the opportunity had presented itself to permantely tip the balance in his favor. He had been confident that he could take on a maddened Neorg, as Neorg would then become too sloppy to fight reasonably. Yet, when Anatak had spoken, confidence slowly turned into doubt and even though he still fooled himself that this was the best course of action, he had failed to see the truth and to handle accordingly. He should have never had Anatak kill the woman of Neorg. It was too late now. Vaguely he saw in the corner of his left eye Neorg charging a ki beam. On pure instinct, he raised his arms to charge a ki beam of his own, but by the time he had done that, it was already too late. Fueled by his rage and due to the fact that he was stronger then Draawz in his current state to begin with, Neorg charged his ki beam much quicker and fired it before Draawz even had a chance to properly reply Neorg's ki beam. Draawz was hit dead on and was drilled into the ground by the blue beam of anger and while he struggled to remain conscious he wondered why the damn thing just couldn't explode and end his suffering. It finally did that 200 meters underground, where Draawz could've sworn that it was a lot warmer then on the surface, had it not been that Neorg's ki beam had burned his skin to a crisp and thus disabled his ability to properly sense the temperature of his environment. With his last strength he could look up towards the outside world, were he saw that a blue light was coming his way, before everything became black.
*[The pain, but at the same time total numbness.]*
He wondered, if this is how death felt.
***
For the past few minutes, Anatak could only watch in horror as Neorg seemed to have taken on the job of excavating Draawz personally, with thousands of tiny blue ki balls swung down in the general direction of the hole in which Draawz had been drilled. She wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't. She was simply too terrified to do anything else then hangs in the air, watching in horror at Neorg's show of power and mostly madness like everyone else. She began to wonder. She began to wonder what would have happened if she hadn't shot that ki beam, what would have happened if she hadn't spoken so doubtful about the plan that Draawz had conjured up. She found that she could only blame herself. She looked down and saw that the ground appeared to become closer. For some reason, she was slowly dropping down towards the ground. She found that it was her own guilt that dropped her towards the ground. By Srekam ed, she wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't. She thought of the children Draawz and she had. The children, who were safely in a crèche away from the madness of battle, like every other Saiyan child of the group. The children, who would have to live on without a father and probably a mother too, if the others would tell Neorg the full story after the confirmation of Draawz's death. She wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't and therefor she looked up, towards the other Saiyans. She touched the ground and her strain of thoughts and emotions ended abruptly. Something had changed.
Three Saiyan males had gotten out of their almost zombie-like state and all charged a ki beam of their own. Anatak knew them; they were the males that had made it possible for Draawz to make his leap for control. They were the males that had helped Draawz run the group whenever things became unstable. They were the males that had always been Draawz's most trusted friends. Well actually two were, Anatak noticed that the third was the eldest son of one of them. She smirked like Draawz had done so many times and jumped to join them, but then realized the true reason why she couldn't help Draawz before. To help someone in a fight, especially an important fight like this one, was to ensure that the rest of the group never again respected that person. She halted in mid air and shouted.
"[Stop!]"
The shout came as such a surprise that the three males actually listened and stopped charging their ki beams. They looked down as Anatak came up to their own level. Two of them, the elder ones, already began to realize why she had called them to a halt. Third and youngest however didn't.
"[Why?]" He asked as Anatak reached their level and the three males looked up.
"[Simple, you can't and you may not help someone in a fight and that goes certainly for a fight of this importance. If we would've done what we were planning, it would not only be the end for Draawz, but also for us.]"
The answer given by Anatak was clear and simple; she explained what she realized only just before. The two elder males looked somewhat ashamed by the fact that they didn't realize this themselves, but the youngest was not about to admit his defeat just yet.
"[But we must help Draawz. We'll die anyway if he dies."
The argument was weak and everyone knew this, but Anatak still took the time to explain it to the young male.
"[Look, there are two possibilities here. Draawz is dead already or not. If he is dead then we're in big trouble anyhow, if not then I believe that he still has a large chance to win this.]"
She pointed at Neorg while she said it. It was costing Neorg enormous amounts of ki to do what he did and if Draawz was still alive and conscious he should still have a chance to beat Neorg, if not everything was lost as it was. The young male finally admitted it to as he looked towards Neorg, who had adjusted his strategy. Instead of shooting countless small ki balls, he now shot large ki beams at a far slower rate.
"[Good, Neorg is becoming tired.]"
All four Saiyans were in agreement. Neorg did indeed appear to become tired. Nevertheless, the result of his attack was indeed impressive. A massive crater of over 150 meters deep and still deepening with every blast, now was on the spot were Draawz had been drilled in the ground. How anything could have survived that, no one knew and thus Anatak's hope left her entirely.
***
I am not dead, that was the conclusion Draawz had drawn after several more minutes in the dark environment he was currently in. Sure, he was severely beaten and bruised, burned to a crisp and he was pretty sure that at least more bones were broken in his body then he had fingers, but he still lived. Well lived, any member of any other species, other then a few species with regeneration capabilities rivaling those of a little known race called Namekians, would have died along time ago, but he still breathed, even if it did hurt with every breath he took. Of course the pain was another give away that he was still alive, next to the fact that he heard his heart beating almost as loud as the what he assumed was once a barrage of ki blasts, which had slowed down considerable in the last minute and had become a awful lot louder. And there was this thing that he could still think all this, which was a feat on it's own given the beating that he had received minutes earlier. Yes, he was definitely alive, but for how long. He was pretty sure that whoever was busy above him, heck everything was above him but that was not the point, was Neorg and that meant that he probably wouldn't have another minute to live, once he was out here. Out here, Draawz wondered how the 'out here' was going to be like. If he was going to see a ray of light entering the dark 'chamber' in which he lay, if there was a large explosion consuming his live and the environment or if Neorg was simply going to stick his head in the chamber and say hi.
Less then a minute later he got his answer, it was none of the three options that he had given himself. There was a large explosion, but it never reached far enough to destroy the entire chamber. Instead it only destroyed a little over half the chamber, leaving Draawz lying in what looked like a dinner plate for a giant. A dinner plate filled with dust and smoke that is and a Saiyan who was about medium done. These and other strange thoughts came up in Draawz as he waited for the smoke to disappear and the dust to settle. Luckily for his sanity he didn't have to wait long, then again, what he saw next wasn't exactly good for him either. He was in the middle of a giant crater, which was littered on the bottom with craters. He had never ever seen anything like this in his life and he wondered if anyone had ever seen anything truly like this. He was a child again, staring in amazement at the whole environment around him, while he remained lying in his own 'dinner plate'. An explosion shook him out of it as he realized the danger of the predicament he was in. He slowly and mostly painfully stood up and looked up, all those 200 meter plus an additional hundred meter or so up, were Neorg charged another blue ki beam. His eyes widened as he saw the ki beam coming straight at him and he crossed his arms before him, for whatever his defense was still worth. The ki beam however never did hit him as it vanished without a trace from sight. Draawz let out the air in longs, from which he hadn't even realized that he was holding it. His relieve didn't last long as he saw a small dot coming down, Neorg had decided that he would finish him off without some distant ki beam. Images of being tortured filled his mind.
***
Yet Draawz's images of torture were only present in his own mind, Neorg himself didn't have any thoughts currently that were even remotely similar to those of Draawz. No, Neorg wasn't currently thinking about death, pain and torture of his opponent, he was thinking about how to get down without falling to an embarrassing death. His storm of ki that he had used to reach Draawz had left him drained to the point that he had no longer enough ki left to even keep himself aloft in the air and so he was falling slowly down towards the ground. He went passed the edge of the crater that he had created and knew that he should have landed there. The crater was after all another 200 meters deeper. He went past a group of midgets carrying small arms on their back, but they didn't even register in his mind as he was still trying to figure out how he was going to survive the fall. He was halfway down the crater when he noticed that he wasn't accelerating in the way, as was normally the case in a fall. He was more less coming down in a constant speed. So he still had some ki left, his hope raised. He was about 50 meters above the bottom of the crater when he became aware of a stinging sensation, not from below, but from above. He closed his eyes and fell past the midgets again, he cursed himself. The stinging sensation stopped and moments later the fall was disabled from continuing by the ground. The world had gained a lot more similarity with a bagpipe, when he opened his eyes again and he would have noticed that too, if he knew what a bagpipe was.
*[So no shameful death for me.]*
So he hadn't yet died, but that was about the only positive point to the situation. He saw three Saiyans stand in front of him. All looked alike, all looked like a badly injured Draawz.
"[What happened to you guys?]"
The stinging sensation returned.
***
Draawz now began to seriously question his own sanity. Had he just heard Neorg ask, what had happened to him in multitude? He blinked and when he looked again, the golden rays that had made contact with Neorg earlier in his fall where back. One shot towards him and did manage to hit him on a spot of his left arm where he wasn't burned yet; it felt like one of those energy beams that the flying machines of the enemy shot. He looked at his arm and then back at Neorg, who was slowly consumed by the rays.
*[Why doesn't he do something?]*
Why didn't Neorg do something, Draawz wondered. He then remembered the drop of Neorg into the crater that had been far to fast, Neorg's inability to do anything about the first rays and the impact with the crater floor. Could it be that his plan had actually worked, that Neorg didn't have any usable ki left. Could it have been that he could have won. Probably yes, he still had, despite his state, enough ki left to fight. Anger began to grow inside of him as he looked up to see if other Saiyans were watching. He could have won, he thought. There were Saiyans watching, some of which were already leaving. This fueled his anger, but he couldn't be angry with them. All they saw was that Neorg had beaten him around and now was being killed by someone other then him. For all the information they had gotten, everything pointed to the fact that Neorg was the better fighter and he, their leader before this fight needed help to beat Neorg. Yet he didn't need help, he knew, he didn't need help to beat Neorg and that left him angry with those who had dared to interfere. The rays stopped and Draawz looked down. There was no way that Neorg would have survived the attack that he had just endured, judging by the injuries he had sustained. Draawz shook his head, some part in his brain was saddened by this all, but that was not it. It was perfectly normal to be sad when you lost almost everything, while you could have kept everything. No, the anger that had been building for some time now, turned into something much more deadly, cold hatred. The golden rays that had been so lethal for Neorg now made contact with him, but it didn't bother him, as he was no longer there. The rays stopped as Draawz's after image slowly disappeared. The enemy didn't get much time to think about what happened however; Draawz reappeared above them and fired a ki beam. They never knew what exactly hit them as some where flung away by the force of the explosion, others were instantly killed by the blast and those who had survived, well they just didn't get the time to think about what just happened. A second ki beam made sure that they were finished of. Yet the golden rays returned, this time from the edge of the crater where armored vehicles stood, with alongside them more of the small creatures. Draawz powered up a third ki beam and fired it. The beam went wide, but another, a red one, did hit the enemy formation and exploded. Two more beams did hit the enemy formation, but Draawz no longer picked it up. His injuries finally got the better of him and he slipped into unconsciousness, but not before he saw a female diving towards him.
***
Jacen was strapped against the wall of a cargo plane; he was heading back to his base. They had won the battle and the enemy had fled, but it didn't feel like a victory according to Jacen. He had always thought that victory was a blissful state of happiness, one that you could share with friends during a large party of some kind, but this one didn't feel like that all. It wasn't a blissful state of happiness, because he had to many questions about what had happened. Yet the questions wasn't the main reason that he wasn't in a blissful state, as he looked around to see the rest of the occupants of the plane. Twice he had experienced the awesome power of the enemy's energy beams. Twice he had survived the attack by some fluke of fortune, but during those two attacks, he had lost most of the friends he had. Some victory this was. Nevertheless, his father would be proud. He wasn't a coward, not anymore, because tomorrow he would go hunting. He would go and hunt down every single member of whatever species had set its ugly foot on planet Plant and kill him or her with the utmost pleasure that possible.
***
When Draawz came back into the land of the conscious, things had changed. He didn't know it yet, but it was true. The position that he had held, until the moment that the small creatures had finished off Neorg, was not his anymore. It wasn't anyone's position anymore as the group had ceased to be. After the death of Neorg, small flocks of Saiyans, mostly friends of each other had broken off of the main group and were starting a whole new existence away from the battle. Away from the hectic and constant present politics of the main group. Once this had started more and more groups had left until finally only five Saiyans and their children had remained under Draawz's rule. Yet Draawz's fall from power didn't end there, all though the next step was only temporarily. Anatak had namely chosen, while Draawz was still unconscious, to withdraw even from the small group that still choose to follow Draawz, but not before she promised that they would return when Draawz had healed. Of course, when Draawz opened his eyes and looked around in the cave where he was resting, he had no idea of that this all had happened, but he would learn about this later as it was first time for something else. The children had discovered that he had awakened. Three little Saiyans stormed towards him, two identical boys, both eight Earth years old and a five Earth years old girl.
"[Daddy!]" All yelled as they jumped on Draawz.
Draawz grunted in reply, he was far from recovered from the injuries he had sustained. He could not have been recovered from his wounds, as they were still only a couple of hours old.
"[How are you, daddy?]"
His daughter asked if he was all right and Draawz smiled, the only answer he had enough strength for. He knew that he was going to be all right eventually, he just needed some rest.
"[Come, let's leave your father for the moment alone. He needs his rest.]"
Anatak had appeared in the mouth of the cave and called the children. She was right of course, he needed his rest, but it had been nice to see them. He hadn't seen them since, well since just before the battle had started. Whenever that had been. He had no knowledge of time as he had no reverence. He closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep. He didn't even notice the children leaving. He didn't notice that Anatak stayed after the children had left, waiting for the time that he would fulfill the promise that he had made earlier this day. Before everything had gone wrong.
***July 3, 384 BC, Outer reaches of the Plant system***
A large ship shaped like a triangle floated in the silent reaches of space. On board where four roughly humanoid beings, about the size of a Tsufuru, with no hair, pale skin and large black eyes. They were known to the Saiyans as Srekam ed, the Creators, but they themselves didn't give a damn about this title. They were here to ensure that everything went according to plan, nothing more and nothing less. That the Saiyans looked at them as what technically were was of little concern to them. The Saiyans were only one part of the plan.
"[Maximum dispersion reached. The insertion is a success.]"
One of the beings, standing at the sensor console, gave the preliminary reports about the spread of the Saiyans. It was good, according to the captain.
"[Good.]"
They would remain here for some time to come. All the while, closely monitoring the Saiyans that they brought here. Ensuring that the Saiyans would have a good springboard for their plan.
***
Author's note: Well it became a lot longer then I expected, but that is not disaster or anything. As for the Saiyans and the aliens, yes I 'translated' their language. You will know why I gave the Saiyans another language then English, as it is an important plot point.