Last time:
How could she? No, she didn't see my dream, no, impossible.
But I have to know, so, without so much as dabbing my sweating face with a drying clothe, I make way to her room. I have to get this over with, I have to sever what little we have, or face the unthinkable.
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As I walk toward the woman's bedchambers, I am continually bombarded with unwanted thoughts and images; the woman as a child, the woman meeting her former weakling mate, the woman meeting myself for the first time on Planet Namek, the first time I advanced myself on her. Shaking my head vigorously, I attempt to clear these thoughts; hopefully me being in her presence will stop them.
"Vegeta," she whimpers in her thoughts. If I hadn't known better, I'd think she was calling me. I get no more then ten steps, when I "hear" her again. "Vegeta, I know you're coming to see me." I stop abruptly, a few doors down from her own. "But don't. I don't want to see you."
"If you didn't want to see me you wouldn't be thinking of me." The thoughts were for myself, not intended to go to her, but it's inevitable, our connect as of now is too strong, another reason for my severing of it.
"Don't you dare come a step closer."
Out of anger I reply. "I will not bend to the demands of simpletons like you, woman." And then suddenly I'm in her room, looking upon her, not merely seeing her through my mind's eye. She's just as she was when I was in the gravity chamber, crumpled on her bed amid a mass of sheets and pillows, her cheeks stained with tears, eyes red from crying.
"I told you to stay out," she says, the words coming from her lips rather than her mind. I sigh at this, comforted by her voice to my ears; this is how it should be.
"One moment I'm the only thing you want, and the next you're demanding I leave. I dare say I will never understand you."
"You don't have to understand me when you're light years away."
"Very true woman. By this time tomorrow I shall be rid of you and all your ties. But as I am still here and as I am partially bonded to you, I have some unfinished business."
"What d'you mean?" she asks, almost frantically, sitting up. Her hair falls messily around her face, strands of it lying across her face; I like this look for her, messy, as if we'd just finished bedding together. "Stop thinking of that and answer me."
"Stay out of my thoughts and I will," I sneer, dropping hard on the bed beside her.
"I cannot simply 'stay out' of your thoughts Vegeta. They come to me, I don't invite them in."
I continue on as if she said nothing. "I am here, though I surely wish not to be, because of a partial bond that we have together."
"How can we have a partial bond when you didn't bite me?" Her question is both accusatory and wondering. What a fine mate she would have made had she been a Saiyan.
"How do you know this?"
She tumbles backwards, nearly falling to the floor.
"No woman, I did not bite you. Calm down."
She straightens herself back you, glaring daggers at me.
"Then how?" she snaps, her nose twitching in anger.
"I know only what I was told, and this, unfortunately, was not told to me. I do not know why this is occurring. Possibly because you are an alien, or, maybe because we share a child together. Whatever the case, I do not know, I only wish to stop it in its tracks before it becomes too much more of a nuisance."
"Just leave, ok? Go. Go off into space and leave me be."
"I wish it were that simple woman, believe me."
"It is that simple Vegeta. You being apart from me will 'sever the bond' as you say."
"And what if I am in space and can still hear your thoughts?"
"Then you would realize that you should have stayed." She turns from me, arms crossed over her chest, pressing her plump breasts together. "And stop thinking about that. You had your chance this morning."
"What do you mean, 'I would have realized I should have stayed'?" I ask, turning her head to face me.
"I mean, Vegeta, that in the vision I saw of you as a child your father said that mates who are in love can hear each other's thoughts. And we both can hear them, not just me. So-"
"Enough. Not another word about that foul-"
"No Vegeta. Why can't you just admit that you love me? Answering my calls was proof enough, and yet you still deny it."
"Is my ship ready?"
"Yes." Her eyes are mere slits now, glaring at me as those she's trying to harm me with her gaze.
"Alright then."
And without so much as a glance back at the mother of my son, I leave the room, heading for my ship that will take me from this Kami forsaken mud ball.
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"Vegeta!" I turn around at the sound of my name, smirking at the only man whom I can call a friend.
"Terrak," I say, bowing to him. He bows back, as is custom on his planet, then erupts in a flow of words.
"My Deverous (his God)! How long has it been? I swear, I was no sooner becoming a man when you left. I thought I'd never see you again after all these years passed. I hadn't heard word about you and thought the worst. But, as I sat in my study, I heard on the Trans-Gala-Radio that Frieza had been destroyed on Planet Earth. And now, here you are, back on Deveron, in this dirty old bar. Come, to my house, my wife will fix you something better."
"Terrak, my old friend," I manage to say. "Your wife? You've gotten yourself a mate?"
"Ah yes Vegeta." He laughs as he makes way along a path of cobblestones that leads to the town square. "What did you think I would do, wait for you to return to have you at the wedding?" Once to the square, he turns left, then right down a narrow corridor between tall stone and/or mud buildings, then right, then left again, until we are upon his home, just as I remembered it from years ago. "Her name is Serria." He went to open the door, then turned and smiled at me. "We've had a child together as well."
"An heir?" I am quite interested in his progress over the years. I too thought we would never meet again.
"No, no. A daughter. Wella." He is still smiling. A daughter? A female? And he is proud? But I must remember, the ways of Deveron are quite different than the ways of Planet Vegeta.
"They are inside I presume." I can think of nothing else to say. He has changed over these years, yes, but he is still as I remember him. Perhaps it has been my travelings that makes it seem so different. I shall need to try harder to not offend my friend, for he is the only being I can truly trust.
"Yes, inside. Serria is an Inerget, she rarely leaves at all." Ah, now there's something familiar; a being who is killed or near fatally harmed by the rays of the sun.
"An Inerget? But how did you come across her?"
"Actually-" he laughed, pulling the door open and entering the front hall. It looked just as I remembered it; cool stone floor, one black stick chair in the corner, a human sized vase to the right next to a narrow doorway, and another doorway, draped with a scarlet curtain, to the left. "-I met her back in the Savaron where I just happened upon you moment ago."
"The Savaron? At night? What were you doing there?"
"I-well-to tell you the truth Vegeta, if it hadn't been for your leaving I would have never gone there."
"What do you mean?" My leaving? What did that have to do with anything?
"Well, it was about eleven years after you left and I was at home listening to the Trans-Gala, when Frieza's voice suddenly came on. He was looking for you, there was a-"
"-bounty on my head," I finished for him. Ah yes, I remember those days. That was right after I'd left him for good.
"Yes. I thought for sure that he or his Ginyu Force would find you, for you'd been with him for so long that your moves were probably most easy for him to predict."
"And they were. He found me quite easily."
"I went to the Savaron to drown my sorrows. I thought I'd lost my only true friend."
"Terrak, what have I told you about pity?" I scold as we pass through the scarlet curtain, into a large room with painted floors and mirrored walls; his meditation room.
"I know Vegeta. And I thought on that, and I tried to be strong, be the way you taught me. But hearing that was too much."
"And you meet Serria there?"
"Yes. You see, with her being an Inerget she could not enjoy the lively bars during the day and therefore had to go to unsafe ones like the Savaron during the night."
"And what were you doing there tonight, my friend? I'm sure the Trans-Gala gives no more news of me."
"Very true." We were now coming upon the next room, smaller than the last, and lined with ferns and short trees, the ceiling covered in lights and sprinklers. I surmised from the look of it, as I had not seen it before, to have been made for his mate; a sort of indoor outside. "But when you landed my brother Quesser saw you exit the hanger and came right to me."
"And how did you know I was at the Savaron?" I was simply fooling with him now. His smile told me he knew this and he answered most kindly.
"I asked those in the streets if they had seen an alien man with tall hair and armor." He laughed at this. "An old woman I asked said, 'Yes, I saw Prince Vegeta enter the Savaron not two minutes before you come upon me.'"
"Am I still Prince Vegeta here?"
"You will always be Prince Vegeta, my dear friend. Ah, my wife. She is in here." We passed through another curtained doorway, entering a room full of large pillows, tiny pools of water in the floor, and stone archways leading to the rooms that went off it. This room was familiar to me; Terrak's favorite room, one I spent most of my time in when with him. "Serria, my dear."
She stood immediately, her almost white skin contrasting greatly to Terrak's pale blue. She bowed once to me, then smiled and said, "I'm so glad to finally meet you Vegeta. Terrak has spoken most highly of you."
I bow as well. "And his words of you are nothing short of praise."
"Come, come," Terrak says anxiously, pulling me to another room. Serria follows, her long blue skirts dragging on the floor. "My daughter, she will be in here." The next room, another I have not seen before, it quite large and painted all black, with several small circular windows in the ceiling. There are shutters beside these windows so sunlight can be shut out during the day. As I look around, I'm immediately reminded of the woman back on Earth. There are large square holes in the wall to the right, each with doors almost as tall as myself. Some are pulled out, revealing that inside they hold wires or pieces of metal or tools. Along the wall to the left are shelves covered in books of all colors and sizes, possibly all having to do with machinery and mechanics. And in the middle of all this chaos sat a tiny replica of Serria, those her skin was pale blue like Terrak's, telling me that she did not inherit her mother's curse.
"Father, mother," the little girl named Wella said, standing and bowing to her parents; they bowed in return.
"Wella, my darling, there is someone I would like you to meet."
"Prince Vegeta," she said, taking me completely by surprise. She bowed to me as she had her parents and I bowed back, not wishing to be rude to the daughter of my friend. "Forgive me, but I must say you are quite the extraordinary man."
"You know of me?" I ask, glancing down at what she had been tinkering with before we entered the room; a machine that looked much too advanced for such a young child.
"Oh yes. My father buys me lots of books and you are in many of them."
"I am in your books? Which ones?" Since when was I written about? And I hate to admit it, but I was most interested in reading from these books myself.
"Well, I first read about you here and there in Trava-Gala books of which I'm sure you're familiar with." I nod. Trava-Gala books were issued once every five years with updates on the universe and its planets. "You were in a chapter on Saiyans, of course, and another on Frieza, and still another on the Ginyu Force." I nod again, as if to confirm what she had read was in fact right. "After that I told my father I wished to learn more of you. He was quite pleased with this and we traveled to several different planets in search of reference of you."
"And what did you find?"
"Many, many books," she said excitedly with a wide smile, reminding me of Terrak. "Older issues of Trava-Gala and some books on the Cold Empire. It wasn't until we reached Gerock-" I didn't know Gerock was still in existence. I was sure it was blown up after Frieza found out that books, scrolls, and memory discs that he'd banned were being sold under his nose. "-that I found whole books on you."
"Whole books?"
"Yes, three to be exact." She pointed to a collection of three blue, gold, and red books, all of which were very tattered and held together with pieces of metal that I'm sure Wella put there herself. "They were written by the same woman, a woman who admired you greatly. She was a mere servant to Frieza and your father before that, but knew more about you than any other being."
"She knew enough about me to write three books? I dare say I don't believe this."
"You may read them if you like. They're quite fascinating." She scampered over to the bookshelf, retrieving the books and holding them out to me.
"Don't you have these on memory discs?"
"No, I'm sorry. They are much too old for that. They were written before you were fifteen."
"Ah, yes, then they are very old. But I do not wish to waste time reading them. Tell me facts this woman has written."
"Your mother fell in love with another Saiyan shortly after your eighth year. She was put to death before your ninth, though your father said that she died on a mission."
I starred blankly at her for a moment, not sure that I'd heard correctly. Then, after several long moments I whispered, "Resadiv."
"Yes," Wella said, looking a little uneasy. "She was your maid up until Planet Vegeta was destroyed, then she was moved to-"
"-Frieza's quarters," I finished for her, leaning back on the balls of my feet. Why in Kami's name would Resadiv write books about me?
Wella smiled timidly at me, then extended her arms, full of the three books, to me again. I took them this time, as she knew I would, and exited the room to read them in peace.
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I emerged from Terrak's drawing room, a small room off the other side of the main hall, some two hours later, fully read up on my own history to my fifteenth year. Not a single word of the text had been untrue, and here I thought Resadiv had been loyal to Frieza. That must have been why she disappeared a few years after Frieza destroyed my home planet.
"Forgive me friend," I said to Terrak upon seeing him in his kitchen area, a large circular room a few rooms over from the drawing room. "But I had to see for myself."
"How did you take them?" he asked, smiling, though he looked slightly unnerved.
"I took them as I was supposed to take them. Resadiv knew quite a lot more than she let on."
I look around; the room is just as I remembered it, like so many of the others. In the center, where Terrak and I now sat, was a large circular table surrounded by a circular bench no higher than a foot and covered with several black pillows of velvet. In the center of the table is a large hole lined with stones; it is used to keep food warm, a stone slab is placed over it and the food on top of that when a fire is lit underneath. To my right along the circular wall are copper pots and pans of many different sizes and a large fire pit with a putter cauldron hanging over it. To my left there are more pits in the floor, though covered in stone slabs; there are undoubtedly piles of ice beneath them where they store food. Serria and Wella are nowhere in sight.
"Tell me of your travelings, Vegeta," Terrak said out of the blue, pushing a steaming bowl of liquid towards me. I peer inside the bowl, smirking at its contents; steaming red liquid with cubes of white and black meat in it; Geradon Soup.
"There's not much to tell, Terrak. You know of my traveling to Namek to head off Frieza and my being on Earth when he was killed. I came from Earth to Deveron."
"Who killed Frieza? There are many theories, but no facts in this galaxy. I don't know where to go for the facts, save you."
"My son," I say simply, picking up the bowl and bringing it to my lips. The warm soup soothes my throat as I swallow, and the meat reminds me of long ago days on Deveron when I was still training under Frieza.
"Y-Y-Your son?" Terrak nearly spits his soup all over the table, but manages to swallow before continuing. "You have an heir Vegeta, and you did not tell me?"
"I haven't had the opportunity to tell you."
"How do you have a son when all other Saiyans but yourself and a third class male are dead?"
"So you know of Kakarot?" Terrak nods. "My mate was an Earthling. She and my son are still there."
"Why did you not bring them along?"
"I wish for no attachments. I mated with her during a Mating Cycle and my son was the result."
"You simply left them there?"
"Why is that so hard for you to believe, Terrak?" I'm suddenly getting quite mad at him. "I am not a Dever like you, my customs are different."
"Never did Saiyan custom involve abandoning mate and heir." His voice is hot now as well, with a great deal of accusation.
"I did not come here to be insulted be my friend, Terrak!" I yell, climbing to my feet. "You have no right telling me what I should and should not have done!"
Terrak is now to his feet, hands balled into fists, ready if I attack him. "You're not the man I remember, Vegeta," he breathes heavily, glaring at me with his small white eyes.
"I wasn't a man when you knew me," I sneer back, fully prepared to give this verbal fight my all. "I was thirteen when I last saw you."
"All the same, you're not Vegeta anymore. Frieza has changed you for the worst."
"Frieza has nothing to do with me!"
"The Vegeta I knew was bound by honor. And family means honor, no matter how it comes about."
I fall silent as this, letting his words resound in the walls of my head.
I slouch back into my place at the table, reaching my hands around my bowl of Geradon Soup, but not bringing it to my lips.
"Tell me of her," he said quietly, taking his seat again as well.
"What's there to tell?" I sigh, sipping the soup.
"Fine, then I'll ask. Where did you meet her?"
"Namek."
"Namek?"
"Namek."
"Where on Namek?"
"She had a Dragonball that I wanted."
"And you stole it from her?" He knows me too well.
"Yes."
"When did you see her again?"
"Earth."
"Earth? Where on Earth?"
"Everyone on Namek, save Frieza and Kakarot, were wished to Planet Earth. I was among them and ended up in the same area as her. She invited me to live at her house if I wanted."
"After you stole from her and no doubt threatened her?"
"Yes, she's a strong woman."
"Brave. I doubt any Earthling is strong."
"I didn't mean brute strength."
"Ah, my mistake." He smiled at me, telling me I was forgiven for my outburst. I smirked back at him. "You said you mated while in your Cycle?"
"Correct."
"Did she know this?"
"Yes, it was her idea. She said she was 'helping' me."
"Noble woman."
"Indeed."
"Why leave her then? She sounds to me to have all the qualities Saiyans look for in a mate."
"She's an Earthling, Terrak, not a Saiyan."
"I'm aware. Bu-"
"Can you hear me Vegeta?"
It was the woman.
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---Chapter 10! Done! Yay! Tell me what you thought. How'd u like Terrak and all them?
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How could she? No, she didn't see my dream, no, impossible.
But I have to know, so, without so much as dabbing my sweating face with a drying clothe, I make way to her room. I have to get this over with, I have to sever what little we have, or face the unthinkable.
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As I walk toward the woman's bedchambers, I am continually bombarded with unwanted thoughts and images; the woman as a child, the woman meeting her former weakling mate, the woman meeting myself for the first time on Planet Namek, the first time I advanced myself on her. Shaking my head vigorously, I attempt to clear these thoughts; hopefully me being in her presence will stop them.
"Vegeta," she whimpers in her thoughts. If I hadn't known better, I'd think she was calling me. I get no more then ten steps, when I "hear" her again. "Vegeta, I know you're coming to see me." I stop abruptly, a few doors down from her own. "But don't. I don't want to see you."
"If you didn't want to see me you wouldn't be thinking of me." The thoughts were for myself, not intended to go to her, but it's inevitable, our connect as of now is too strong, another reason for my severing of it.
"Don't you dare come a step closer."
Out of anger I reply. "I will not bend to the demands of simpletons like you, woman." And then suddenly I'm in her room, looking upon her, not merely seeing her through my mind's eye. She's just as she was when I was in the gravity chamber, crumpled on her bed amid a mass of sheets and pillows, her cheeks stained with tears, eyes red from crying.
"I told you to stay out," she says, the words coming from her lips rather than her mind. I sigh at this, comforted by her voice to my ears; this is how it should be.
"One moment I'm the only thing you want, and the next you're demanding I leave. I dare say I will never understand you."
"You don't have to understand me when you're light years away."
"Very true woman. By this time tomorrow I shall be rid of you and all your ties. But as I am still here and as I am partially bonded to you, I have some unfinished business."
"What d'you mean?" she asks, almost frantically, sitting up. Her hair falls messily around her face, strands of it lying across her face; I like this look for her, messy, as if we'd just finished bedding together. "Stop thinking of that and answer me."
"Stay out of my thoughts and I will," I sneer, dropping hard on the bed beside her.
"I cannot simply 'stay out' of your thoughts Vegeta. They come to me, I don't invite them in."
I continue on as if she said nothing. "I am here, though I surely wish not to be, because of a partial bond that we have together."
"How can we have a partial bond when you didn't bite me?" Her question is both accusatory and wondering. What a fine mate she would have made had she been a Saiyan.
"How do you know this?"
She tumbles backwards, nearly falling to the floor.
"No woman, I did not bite you. Calm down."
She straightens herself back you, glaring daggers at me.
"Then how?" she snaps, her nose twitching in anger.
"I know only what I was told, and this, unfortunately, was not told to me. I do not know why this is occurring. Possibly because you are an alien, or, maybe because we share a child together. Whatever the case, I do not know, I only wish to stop it in its tracks before it becomes too much more of a nuisance."
"Just leave, ok? Go. Go off into space and leave me be."
"I wish it were that simple woman, believe me."
"It is that simple Vegeta. You being apart from me will 'sever the bond' as you say."
"And what if I am in space and can still hear your thoughts?"
"Then you would realize that you should have stayed." She turns from me, arms crossed over her chest, pressing her plump breasts together. "And stop thinking about that. You had your chance this morning."
"What do you mean, 'I would have realized I should have stayed'?" I ask, turning her head to face me.
"I mean, Vegeta, that in the vision I saw of you as a child your father said that mates who are in love can hear each other's thoughts. And we both can hear them, not just me. So-"
"Enough. Not another word about that foul-"
"No Vegeta. Why can't you just admit that you love me? Answering my calls was proof enough, and yet you still deny it."
"Is my ship ready?"
"Yes." Her eyes are mere slits now, glaring at me as those she's trying to harm me with her gaze.
"Alright then."
And without so much as a glance back at the mother of my son, I leave the room, heading for my ship that will take me from this Kami forsaken mud ball.
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"Vegeta!" I turn around at the sound of my name, smirking at the only man whom I can call a friend.
"Terrak," I say, bowing to him. He bows back, as is custom on his planet, then erupts in a flow of words.
"My Deverous (his God)! How long has it been? I swear, I was no sooner becoming a man when you left. I thought I'd never see you again after all these years passed. I hadn't heard word about you and thought the worst. But, as I sat in my study, I heard on the Trans-Gala-Radio that Frieza had been destroyed on Planet Earth. And now, here you are, back on Deveron, in this dirty old bar. Come, to my house, my wife will fix you something better."
"Terrak, my old friend," I manage to say. "Your wife? You've gotten yourself a mate?"
"Ah yes Vegeta." He laughs as he makes way along a path of cobblestones that leads to the town square. "What did you think I would do, wait for you to return to have you at the wedding?" Once to the square, he turns left, then right down a narrow corridor between tall stone and/or mud buildings, then right, then left again, until we are upon his home, just as I remembered it from years ago. "Her name is Serria." He went to open the door, then turned and smiled at me. "We've had a child together as well."
"An heir?" I am quite interested in his progress over the years. I too thought we would never meet again.
"No, no. A daughter. Wella." He is still smiling. A daughter? A female? And he is proud? But I must remember, the ways of Deveron are quite different than the ways of Planet Vegeta.
"They are inside I presume." I can think of nothing else to say. He has changed over these years, yes, but he is still as I remember him. Perhaps it has been my travelings that makes it seem so different. I shall need to try harder to not offend my friend, for he is the only being I can truly trust.
"Yes, inside. Serria is an Inerget, she rarely leaves at all." Ah, now there's something familiar; a being who is killed or near fatally harmed by the rays of the sun.
"An Inerget? But how did you come across her?"
"Actually-" he laughed, pulling the door open and entering the front hall. It looked just as I remembered it; cool stone floor, one black stick chair in the corner, a human sized vase to the right next to a narrow doorway, and another doorway, draped with a scarlet curtain, to the left. "-I met her back in the Savaron where I just happened upon you moment ago."
"The Savaron? At night? What were you doing there?"
"I-well-to tell you the truth Vegeta, if it hadn't been for your leaving I would have never gone there."
"What do you mean?" My leaving? What did that have to do with anything?
"Well, it was about eleven years after you left and I was at home listening to the Trans-Gala, when Frieza's voice suddenly came on. He was looking for you, there was a-"
"-bounty on my head," I finished for him. Ah yes, I remember those days. That was right after I'd left him for good.
"Yes. I thought for sure that he or his Ginyu Force would find you, for you'd been with him for so long that your moves were probably most easy for him to predict."
"And they were. He found me quite easily."
"I went to the Savaron to drown my sorrows. I thought I'd lost my only true friend."
"Terrak, what have I told you about pity?" I scold as we pass through the scarlet curtain, into a large room with painted floors and mirrored walls; his meditation room.
"I know Vegeta. And I thought on that, and I tried to be strong, be the way you taught me. But hearing that was too much."
"And you meet Serria there?"
"Yes. You see, with her being an Inerget she could not enjoy the lively bars during the day and therefore had to go to unsafe ones like the Savaron during the night."
"And what were you doing there tonight, my friend? I'm sure the Trans-Gala gives no more news of me."
"Very true." We were now coming upon the next room, smaller than the last, and lined with ferns and short trees, the ceiling covered in lights and sprinklers. I surmised from the look of it, as I had not seen it before, to have been made for his mate; a sort of indoor outside. "But when you landed my brother Quesser saw you exit the hanger and came right to me."
"And how did you know I was at the Savaron?" I was simply fooling with him now. His smile told me he knew this and he answered most kindly.
"I asked those in the streets if they had seen an alien man with tall hair and armor." He laughed at this. "An old woman I asked said, 'Yes, I saw Prince Vegeta enter the Savaron not two minutes before you come upon me.'"
"Am I still Prince Vegeta here?"
"You will always be Prince Vegeta, my dear friend. Ah, my wife. She is in here." We passed through another curtained doorway, entering a room full of large pillows, tiny pools of water in the floor, and stone archways leading to the rooms that went off it. This room was familiar to me; Terrak's favorite room, one I spent most of my time in when with him. "Serria, my dear."
She stood immediately, her almost white skin contrasting greatly to Terrak's pale blue. She bowed once to me, then smiled and said, "I'm so glad to finally meet you Vegeta. Terrak has spoken most highly of you."
I bow as well. "And his words of you are nothing short of praise."
"Come, come," Terrak says anxiously, pulling me to another room. Serria follows, her long blue skirts dragging on the floor. "My daughter, she will be in here." The next room, another I have not seen before, it quite large and painted all black, with several small circular windows in the ceiling. There are shutters beside these windows so sunlight can be shut out during the day. As I look around, I'm immediately reminded of the woman back on Earth. There are large square holes in the wall to the right, each with doors almost as tall as myself. Some are pulled out, revealing that inside they hold wires or pieces of metal or tools. Along the wall to the left are shelves covered in books of all colors and sizes, possibly all having to do with machinery and mechanics. And in the middle of all this chaos sat a tiny replica of Serria, those her skin was pale blue like Terrak's, telling me that she did not inherit her mother's curse.
"Father, mother," the little girl named Wella said, standing and bowing to her parents; they bowed in return.
"Wella, my darling, there is someone I would like you to meet."
"Prince Vegeta," she said, taking me completely by surprise. She bowed to me as she had her parents and I bowed back, not wishing to be rude to the daughter of my friend. "Forgive me, but I must say you are quite the extraordinary man."
"You know of me?" I ask, glancing down at what she had been tinkering with before we entered the room; a machine that looked much too advanced for such a young child.
"Oh yes. My father buys me lots of books and you are in many of them."
"I am in your books? Which ones?" Since when was I written about? And I hate to admit it, but I was most interested in reading from these books myself.
"Well, I first read about you here and there in Trava-Gala books of which I'm sure you're familiar with." I nod. Trava-Gala books were issued once every five years with updates on the universe and its planets. "You were in a chapter on Saiyans, of course, and another on Frieza, and still another on the Ginyu Force." I nod again, as if to confirm what she had read was in fact right. "After that I told my father I wished to learn more of you. He was quite pleased with this and we traveled to several different planets in search of reference of you."
"And what did you find?"
"Many, many books," she said excitedly with a wide smile, reminding me of Terrak. "Older issues of Trava-Gala and some books on the Cold Empire. It wasn't until we reached Gerock-" I didn't know Gerock was still in existence. I was sure it was blown up after Frieza found out that books, scrolls, and memory discs that he'd banned were being sold under his nose. "-that I found whole books on you."
"Whole books?"
"Yes, three to be exact." She pointed to a collection of three blue, gold, and red books, all of which were very tattered and held together with pieces of metal that I'm sure Wella put there herself. "They were written by the same woman, a woman who admired you greatly. She was a mere servant to Frieza and your father before that, but knew more about you than any other being."
"She knew enough about me to write three books? I dare say I don't believe this."
"You may read them if you like. They're quite fascinating." She scampered over to the bookshelf, retrieving the books and holding them out to me.
"Don't you have these on memory discs?"
"No, I'm sorry. They are much too old for that. They were written before you were fifteen."
"Ah, yes, then they are very old. But I do not wish to waste time reading them. Tell me facts this woman has written."
"Your mother fell in love with another Saiyan shortly after your eighth year. She was put to death before your ninth, though your father said that she died on a mission."
I starred blankly at her for a moment, not sure that I'd heard correctly. Then, after several long moments I whispered, "Resadiv."
"Yes," Wella said, looking a little uneasy. "She was your maid up until Planet Vegeta was destroyed, then she was moved to-"
"-Frieza's quarters," I finished for her, leaning back on the balls of my feet. Why in Kami's name would Resadiv write books about me?
Wella smiled timidly at me, then extended her arms, full of the three books, to me again. I took them this time, as she knew I would, and exited the room to read them in peace.
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I emerged from Terrak's drawing room, a small room off the other side of the main hall, some two hours later, fully read up on my own history to my fifteenth year. Not a single word of the text had been untrue, and here I thought Resadiv had been loyal to Frieza. That must have been why she disappeared a few years after Frieza destroyed my home planet.
"Forgive me friend," I said to Terrak upon seeing him in his kitchen area, a large circular room a few rooms over from the drawing room. "But I had to see for myself."
"How did you take them?" he asked, smiling, though he looked slightly unnerved.
"I took them as I was supposed to take them. Resadiv knew quite a lot more than she let on."
I look around; the room is just as I remembered it, like so many of the others. In the center, where Terrak and I now sat, was a large circular table surrounded by a circular bench no higher than a foot and covered with several black pillows of velvet. In the center of the table is a large hole lined with stones; it is used to keep food warm, a stone slab is placed over it and the food on top of that when a fire is lit underneath. To my right along the circular wall are copper pots and pans of many different sizes and a large fire pit with a putter cauldron hanging over it. To my left there are more pits in the floor, though covered in stone slabs; there are undoubtedly piles of ice beneath them where they store food. Serria and Wella are nowhere in sight.
"Tell me of your travelings, Vegeta," Terrak said out of the blue, pushing a steaming bowl of liquid towards me. I peer inside the bowl, smirking at its contents; steaming red liquid with cubes of white and black meat in it; Geradon Soup.
"There's not much to tell, Terrak. You know of my traveling to Namek to head off Frieza and my being on Earth when he was killed. I came from Earth to Deveron."
"Who killed Frieza? There are many theories, but no facts in this galaxy. I don't know where to go for the facts, save you."
"My son," I say simply, picking up the bowl and bringing it to my lips. The warm soup soothes my throat as I swallow, and the meat reminds me of long ago days on Deveron when I was still training under Frieza.
"Y-Y-Your son?" Terrak nearly spits his soup all over the table, but manages to swallow before continuing. "You have an heir Vegeta, and you did not tell me?"
"I haven't had the opportunity to tell you."
"How do you have a son when all other Saiyans but yourself and a third class male are dead?"
"So you know of Kakarot?" Terrak nods. "My mate was an Earthling. She and my son are still there."
"Why did you not bring them along?"
"I wish for no attachments. I mated with her during a Mating Cycle and my son was the result."
"You simply left them there?"
"Why is that so hard for you to believe, Terrak?" I'm suddenly getting quite mad at him. "I am not a Dever like you, my customs are different."
"Never did Saiyan custom involve abandoning mate and heir." His voice is hot now as well, with a great deal of accusation.
"I did not come here to be insulted be my friend, Terrak!" I yell, climbing to my feet. "You have no right telling me what I should and should not have done!"
Terrak is now to his feet, hands balled into fists, ready if I attack him. "You're not the man I remember, Vegeta," he breathes heavily, glaring at me with his small white eyes.
"I wasn't a man when you knew me," I sneer back, fully prepared to give this verbal fight my all. "I was thirteen when I last saw you."
"All the same, you're not Vegeta anymore. Frieza has changed you for the worst."
"Frieza has nothing to do with me!"
"The Vegeta I knew was bound by honor. And family means honor, no matter how it comes about."
I fall silent as this, letting his words resound in the walls of my head.
I slouch back into my place at the table, reaching my hands around my bowl of Geradon Soup, but not bringing it to my lips.
"Tell me of her," he said quietly, taking his seat again as well.
"What's there to tell?" I sigh, sipping the soup.
"Fine, then I'll ask. Where did you meet her?"
"Namek."
"Namek?"
"Namek."
"Where on Namek?"
"She had a Dragonball that I wanted."
"And you stole it from her?" He knows me too well.
"Yes."
"When did you see her again?"
"Earth."
"Earth? Where on Earth?"
"Everyone on Namek, save Frieza and Kakarot, were wished to Planet Earth. I was among them and ended up in the same area as her. She invited me to live at her house if I wanted."
"After you stole from her and no doubt threatened her?"
"Yes, she's a strong woman."
"Brave. I doubt any Earthling is strong."
"I didn't mean brute strength."
"Ah, my mistake." He smiled at me, telling me I was forgiven for my outburst. I smirked back at him. "You said you mated while in your Cycle?"
"Correct."
"Did she know this?"
"Yes, it was her idea. She said she was 'helping' me."
"Noble woman."
"Indeed."
"Why leave her then? She sounds to me to have all the qualities Saiyans look for in a mate."
"She's an Earthling, Terrak, not a Saiyan."
"I'm aware. Bu-"
"Can you hear me Vegeta?"
It was the woman.
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---Chapter 10! Done! Yay! Tell me what you thought. How'd u like Terrak and all them?
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