Disclaimer: I forgot a disclaimer last chapter, didn't I? *shrugs* Oh well, you all know I don't own DBZ. I would think that being female, American, and next-to-broke would be pretty big tip-offs, wouldn't you? *wry smile*
Here's chapter ten!
Everybody Loves Turles
"What the hell is taking them so long?!" Vegeta-ou growled as he glared at the closed door of the space ship that had been sitting in the space dock for a full ten minutes without showing any signs of life. He was beginning to feel very tempted to just blast the damn thing open and drag the Chikyuu-sei diplomats out by their hair if they didn't get their butts out here. "My time is precious and not to be wasted waiting around like a fucking maid!"
"Sir, perhaps they are experiencing a technical difficulty," Bardock suggested calmly, his arms folded across his chest in the image of utter self control. Oh, not to say that he wasn't feeling impatient himself! He just knew that one of them needed to keep a level head here, and that sure as hell wasn't going to be the King. Patience was never Vegeta-ou's strong point. "Perhaps we should have the communications crew attempt to contact them and ask if they need assistance," he suggested, a light smirk crossing his lips. The humans, who were supposed to be there to 'help' the Saiya-jin in their diplomatic relations, would be more than embarrassed to have to accept help just getting off their damn ship. That was definitely not the way to maintain professional dignity.
Apparently, the same thoughts crossed the sovereign's mind, because he smirked broadly in anticipation of ribbing the weakling humans about the one thing they prided themselves on - their superior technology. When they had first come across each other, the Saiya-jin had the greater technology by far, but in a shockingly short amount of time, Chikyuu-sei's scientists had brought their level of expertise and technology up to par with Vegeta-sei's standards, and had since outstripped them by far. It was one of the reasons that relations with the weakling humans were important to maintain. "By the way, Bardock, did you ever speak with your brother or your son about that non-classed onna?"
"Ie," Bardock sighed, a scowl of irritation making itself clear on his features. "I returned to my quarters last night to get some sleep, as well as to speak with Radditz, but my son wasn't there and hadn't shown up by the time I woke and left to meet you here." Snorting his exasperation, he dropped his arms to his sides and flicked his tail in annoyance. "Knowing him, he was probably at a pub, too busy drinking himself under the table to remember where his tail's attached, let alone how to get back to his own bed. I haven't had time to track Turles down yet, since he doesn't share quarters with the rest of my family. In fact," he smirked derisively, "I'd be surprised if he was in his own bed at all!"
"Ah, yes," Vegeta snickered. "Your brother's reputation is... quite well known. In fact, it's a wonder that he doesn't have any brats yet. I've been meaning to ask him how he accomplished that little feat."
Bardock smirked and opened his mouth to say something in reply, but was cut off by the hiss of pressure seals releasing, the precursor to the ship's doors snapping open before the ramp descended. Schooling his mask to a professional indifference, the warrior once again folded his arms across his chest and calmly waited for the arriving diplomats to step off the vessel. He shot a quick glance at his king to see that his fellow Saiyan had likewise donned an expressionless mask, though to one who knew him as well as Bardock did, there was still a hint of impatience around the eyes. And who said Saiya-jin couldn't control their tempers?
"Son Goten, if you don't hurry up and get those capsules and get down here, you're going to embarrass us in front of the Saiyans!" a sweet soprano voice drifted from the confines of the ship, distant enough that it was difficult for even Saiya-jin hearing to pick up. "It's your fault we're late as it is! Grrr... if you'd just had the sense to keep an eye on that control panel, you'd have known we landed nearly fifteen minutes ago!!" Despite the shrewish words that obviously came from her mouth, the woman who stepped off the ramp was the picture of serene calm and composure, and was a stunning beauty in her own right. Bardock eyed the silky blonde critically for a moment, disregarding her striking blue eyes, her gold-spun hair that allowed gravity to at it without a hint of any spikes whatsoever, or her well defined figure, instead concentrating on any threat she might pose to his sovereign. That was his job, after all. To protect Vegeta-ou. Besides, no onna, no matter their race or appearance, could compare to his Sereri.
After a few moments of scrutiny, the spiky haired warrior dismissed the onna as non-threatening. Being a human female, there was no way in hell she was strong enough to even bruise a third class Saiyan, let alone either himself or his king - though he'd still be sure to read her power level in a few moments. As for technological means of injury, Bardock seriously didn't think there was any way she could hide anything in the tight fitting blue shirt and pants that might pose any threat to either Saiyan present. They were good, practical clothes, aesthetically pleasing without being provocatively so; definitely the kind of clothing a diplomat on a mission should wear. Nodding to himself Bardock turned his attention back to the ramp where, any moment now, he expected the other half of the diplomatic liaison to appear.
"We're terribly sorry about making you wait, your Majesty," the woman greeted them courteously, dipping her head by way of showing her respect. She seemed to have no problem whatsoever standing in the ten times Earth gravity, which in itself was mildly surprising, considering that Chikyuu-jin were supposed to be an extremely weak race. "My partner was supposed to keep an eye on the console and notify me when we were about to land, but it appears that he was distracted." A spark of anger flickered in her otherwise icy calm eyes before quickly being suppressed.
It was at that exact moment that the other diplomat decided to make his entrance. "Aww, come on, Marron! Look, I said I was sorry, all right? And you can't lay all the blame on me, since you weren't even in the room!" Bardock's attention was now focused intently on the figure that was making his way down the ramp, his body slowly coming into the range of his vision beginning with a black-clad leg, then a short sleeved blue shirt that matched his counterpart's clothing and exposed his well developed arms and chest, and, finally, his head.
"What the hell?!" Bardock barked, stiffening in shock as he saw just who the other member of the diplomatic duo was. His eyes locked on the boy's ebony orbs in a face that nearly matched his own, framed by a wild mass of hair that stuck out in every direction. Those eyes widened to their fullest extent when they fell on the older warrior, drawn by the man's outburst, and the boy, barely a man, opened his mouth to say the first thing that came to his lips.
"Dad?!"
The blonde's startled blue eyes snapped into focus on the man standing next to the king she had addressed moments before, mirroring her partner's surprise, and she, too, would have said something, if she hadn't been interrupted by the full bellied laugh that erupted from Vegeta at that same moment.
"Hahahaha!! So Turles did have a brat after all!" Vegeta-ou threw back his head and let loose with another laugh before turning to his companion with a fierce grin on his face. "After all, it couldn't be you, Bardock, now could it?" he ribbed slyly. "I didn't think you'd have the guts to go behind your mate's back after what happened that one time one of your brother's whore mistresses showed up at your quarters!"
Despite all of his self control, the memory of that little... incident brought a slight blush leaping across Bardock's tanned cheeks as he shot a glare at the shorter Saiyan. "There was no need to bring that up, Vegeta," he growled under his breath for Vegeta's ears only. The king, instead of being offended by being addressed so informally and impolitely, chortled wickedly at his head of the science wing and strategical commands looking so discomfited.
Shifting his gaze from one Saiyan to the other, Son Goten lifted a hand to scratch the back of his neck in confusion. During the brief exchange, he'd picked up on the fact that this man was not his father, despite the frightening similarities, but that left him bewildered as to how this man, this Saiya-jin, could look so much like him and his father. Surely it couldn't be coincidence that their hair, height, basic build, facial structure - pretty much everything in general! - was almost exactly the same... but there couldn't possibly be a relationship! Goten was a human, for crying out loud!
Oh, well, at least there was one thing he could clear up. King Vegeta had referred to him as 'Turtles's brat,' whoever that was, and Goten's pride in his family wouldn't allow him to be mistaken for the son of anyone besides his father. "Uhh, excuse me, sirs?" he interjected hesitantly. He was, after all, a diplomat, and manners were of the utmost importance on a mission such as this. "I'm afraid you must have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Son Goten, and my father's name is Son Goku. I've never even heard of anyone named 'Turtles,' for that matter." Well, except for Master Roshi, the Turtle Hermit, but I hardly think they were referring to him! Roshi's son? Yuck! As an afterthought, he gestured to the petite onna next to him and added, "And this is Marron. We're the diplomats from Chikyuu-sei." He might have added a little emphasis to 'Chikyuu-sei,' making the point clear that he was fully human, but whether he was pointing this out to the Saiya-jin or to himself, he couldn't have said.
"It's Tur-les," Bardock corrected, eyeing the boy suspiciously, as though to determine the veracity of his statement. He didn't know what to make of the boy. Give the kid a tail, and Bardock would be willing to swear to anyone that the brat was both Saiya-jin and related to Bardock's family somehow. Yes, his keen eyes had noted that the young man lacked what most Saiyans prided themselves for having, and yet he was still convinced the brat had to have Saiya-jin blood - more importantly the Saiya-jin blood of Bardock's kin. The similarities were too overwhelming to ignore or dismiss as coincidence. Besides, humans just did not have gravity-defying hair, not without the excessive use of hair gel, and Bardock's nose picked up no hint of any foreign substances in Son Goten's spiky mass of black.
The only question was why he was a member of a diplomatic team from Earth. There were two possibilities in Bardock's mind. One, the boy had lost his tail somehow, be it by accident or as a punishment, and had somehow fled to Earth to live among the tailless ningen where he would be accepted as 'normal.' Bardock barely considered the other possibility, as it was even more unlikely than a Saiyan boy managing to sneak his way off Vegeta-sei and onto Earth undetected. The boy could be a half-breed, having been born on Earth and raised as one of its weakling inhabitants. Cross-breeding between species was expressly forbidden, except in special cases, and anyone caught was punished rather severely. The offspring, of course, were often killed or taken to the science department for further study, so Bardock was more than well informed on the few cases of inter-species reproduction that cropped up from time to time. He had yet to hear of a case where a half-breed had gone unnoticed for more than five years, and Son Goten was obviously well over five years old. Probably closer to the thirties or forties, judging by Saiya-jin aging standards.
No, the idea of this boy being a half-breed seemed ludicrous to the scientist, but his logical mind couldn't completely discount the theory, either. Still, he leaned more heavily towards the rogue Saiyan attempting to integrate himself in Earth society as more plausible than a half-breed lucky enough to live this long without being caught. Either way, Bardock intended to keep an eye on this 'Son Goten.' He also planned on paying a little visit to his brother after this meeting was over. Turles was the only one he could think of who might have fathered the brat, since Bardock knew he himself wasn't responsible and Radditz, his only surviving son, hardly even looked at females since the death of his mate. That left Bardock's twin brother as the last option, since every other relation Bardock had was dead, and Sereri certainly hadn't borne any children without Bardock's knowing about it. Kakarot had been their last, and that boy had died in his infancy.
Of course, there was always the possibility that Goten was Turles's grandson, but that would mean that Turles had a child nearly as old as Radditz without anyone knowing. Again, it wasn't likely. While it was possible for Turles to have had a brat without Bardock somehow finding out, especially if that child somehow traveled to Earth and lived most of his life there, due to the strict genetic profiling all Saiyan babies underwent, it was highly unlikely that two blood relations would slip by him unnoticed.
Raking his eyes over the boy again, this time sizing him up as a potential threat, Bardock flicked his scouter on and took a power reading. After a few moments of beeping, the scouter finally settled on 5,000. The warrior frowned at that as he turned the device on the human woman who accompanied Goten. While 5,000 wasn't exactly all that powerful, it was definitely a lot stronger power level than a normal human should possess. Granted, there were a few humans who had trained themselves nearly to Saiya-jin standards, or so Bardock had heard, but it seemed... unlikely that one of them would happen to go into diplomacy. Unless, of course, they chose this boy specifically because he's stronger than most humans, Bardock smirked to himself, waiting for the reading on Diplomat Marron to finish. The humans do know that Saiyans tend to respect strength, and Vegeta-sei does have a higher gravity than Chikyuu-sei, so a physically capable diplomat would have its advantages. Nonetheless, the fact that this Saiyan-looking boy happens to be stronger than a normal human does tend to support my theory that he isn't human at all. *Beep* Bardock lifted an eyebrow as he read the scouter, then looked back at the blonde onna. 5,000. The exact same strength as Son Goten. That certainly explained why she had no problem with the ten times Earth's normal gravity, but it still surprised Bardock that an obviously human female diplomat could match even a relatively weak Saiyan like Goten.
"We obviously have a case of mistaken identity here," Marron inserted smoothly, using all the charismatic powers her voice had to soothe the suspicions about her companion. "I can assure you that I have known Goten my whole life, and my father knew both of his parents since they were children. It is simply a strange coincidence that he happens to bear a remarkable resemblance to one or more of your people, King Vegeta."
"Hn," Vegeta grunted, swiftly glancing at Bardock to see if he had an opinion on the matter. Bardock expressed his thoughts on Marron's 'explanation' with a simple snort, too soft for anyone besides the king to hear. "Diplomat Marron is correct. There is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence to question the boy's identity. I assume, Bardock, that he was cleared before he came into the system?"
"Hai, Vegeta-ou," Bardock admitted grudgingly. He had checked the backgrounds and identities of both passengers personally, although he had not seen any pictures of either, and everything had cleared the thorough security measures in place.
Nodding sharply, Vegeta turned back to the two diplomats. "We will, of course, want to check Son Goten's background again. You understand, I'm sure." The two diplomats nodded compliantly, both confident in the knowledge that Goten couldn't be Saiya-jin, and the king continued with the prerequisite load of diplomatic crap. "In that case, we would welcome you to Vegeta-sei, and thank Earth for its kind offer to help us sort out this bull shit with Romula-sei."
Bardock lifted an eyebrow at the comment, but wisely chose to remain silent. While waiting for the diplomats to exit their ship, he had heard his sovereign's opinion on this whole mess many, many times. According to Vegeta, there was no 'mess' to be sorted through. The Saiya-jin has clearly been in the right to retaliate to an assassination attempt as they had, so this whole business with 'straightening things out' with the Chikyuu diplomats was an utter waste of time. Or so said Vegeta, anyway. Bardock didn't completely agree with him on the subject, personally thinking that the king might have gone a little overboard in slaughtering the entire planet. After all, it might have just been a radical faction that had tried to murder him and the prince. He had made these thoughts known to Vegeta, but the shorter warrior had just snorted.
"On behalf of Chikyuu-sei and its people, we are pleased to be of service," Goten intoned, ignoring the impolite remark as he gave the sovereign a half-bow to complete the ritual. Once he straightened up, the unspoken formality of the moment dropped like a dead cat, and the spiky haired diplomat grinned broadly as he rubbed his belly. "So when do we eat?"
Bardock narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the comment, but said nothing. There was nothing he could do at this moment except watch and listen as Son Goten continued to confirm his suspicions about the boy's heritage through his words and actions.
"Spoken like a true Saiyan," Vegeta echoed Bardock's thoughts, a faint smirk on his face. "Earth must be training better diplomats." Neither Saiya-jin missed the elegantly lifted eyebrow of the blond haired beauty as she glanced at the two warriors, almost as though she was quite used to the comment but hadn't expected the Saiyans to also accept it as normal. Noting it and cataloguing the information in his small but growing list of evidence against Goten, Bardock silently followed behind the two diplomats as Vegeta led them out of the docking bay. "My mate and Queen, Bulma, has had the servants prepare two adjoining suites in the royal quarters for your stay. If you would like, I can arrange to have you taken there to rest from your arduous journey," Bardock smirked as he thought he detected a hint of sarcasm in his king's voice, "until it is time to eat."
I wonder how many times Queen Bulma made him rehearse that line, Bardock chuckled inwardly, being careful not to let it show on his face. The last thing he needed was to have Vegeta angry with him for apparently laughing at the most powerful Saiya-jin on the planet, especially in front of outsiders. And what kind of threats she had to use to make him say it, he added to himself, taking a silent delight in Vegeta-ou's misfortune. Perhaps at a more appropriate time he could rib his friend and sovereign about the little display of manners, a thought that brought a faint smile to the warrior's lips.
"Your hospitality is indeed generous, Vegeta-ou," Marron smiled warmly. "My companion and I would definitely appreciate being taken to our rooms, if it's not too much trouble."
In response, Vegeta clapped his hands sharply, smirking with satisfaction as a pair of slaves promptly appeared almost out of thin air. "The diplomats from Chikyuu-sei would like to be taken to their rooms," he stated, making it clear that it was not a request. The pair of silvery skinned beings bowed deeply, then gestured for the two new arrivals to follow them. "Lunch will be in two hours," he added by way of farewell before the slaves led the pair away.
Once Goten and Marron had vanished through a set of doors, Bardock turned to Vegeta. "If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd like to track down my brother and ask him some questions."
"Of course, Bardock," the shorter Saiyan replied amiably. "You will inform me of any progress you make when we meet again to dine with the diplomatic liaison."
"Of course, Vegeta," Bardock smirked, bowing as he did so. "By your leave." Turning on one heel, he swiftly paced towards another set of doors, having a good guess where he might find his brother. Yes, he definitely had some questions he wanted to take up with his twin, starting with a certain diplomat with a striking resemblance to their family, and ending with a non-classed female last seen in his and Radditz's company.
~*~
When I started writing this chapter, I thought I'd have at least two separate and distinct scenes, if not three. In the end, I chose to retain Bardock's basic point of view for the entire chapter and integrated the first two of the three scenes I had planned. The other I'll save for next chapter. On the whole, I think it worked out rather well. Once I got past my writer's block, this chapter came out fairly easily. It's not action packed, I know, but I decided to take advantage of it in order to lay out some of the history and details behind this story - most of which were pre-planned by Mintly, she just never got around to writing them out. It was also tremendously fun to characterize Bardock. *grins* And Vegeta.
Got an opinion on my characterization and anything that happened in this chapter? Got any suggestions for where to take the story? Got anything to say at all? Well, ff.net has conveniently placed that little review button down there so you can let me know. ^_^ Please do! *gives the readers puppy eyes*
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