"And when exactly did you plan to tell me about the change a half-Saiyan child goes through?"

"I didn't think it would happen. They are half-human." Vegeta never turned from his contemplation of the view out the window. "Why would I consider it?"

"You knew when Gohan was fourteen, Vegeta."

"Gohan was born with a tail. Trunks and Bra weren't." Only the slightest tinge of bitterness escaped.

"And that meant what? That they weren't Saiyan enough? Didn't you think when Trunks went super that the possibility existed?"

"Why would I?"

"Vegeta!" She hadn't missed the bitterness that time. Bulma walked up to him, slipping her arms around his waist. "Are our children really such a disappointment to you that you never once considered the possibility that they might take more after the Saiyan side of the family than mine? Is that why you took Goten?"

Vegeta tensed. He'd thought it was over, but the involuntary reaction had proven him wrong. For the first time since he'd come home… he remembered what he had banished from his mind. "Let me go."

Bulma released him, stepping back in surprise at the venom in his tone. "Vegeta?"

He said nothing, his body so tense he was barely able to breathe.

She pursed her lips, observing the rigid stance. "Don't you want to know about your son?"

"My son?" he managed to whisper. The whisper of the terrified child he had been, but this time, the terror was for his child, not himself. Bulma didn't hear him.

"Or should I say, Goten's son?" Bulma asked after a moment. "I should have known you wouldn't care. You certainly don't care about our son."

Vegeta shrugged. Let her think so. It would be best. He had, after all, told Kakarot to take the boy home. It would be best for Goten and the baby if he didn't seem interested. Easier when… his mind shied away from the thought that tried to form.

"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. He's born." She proceeded to give him the baby's vital statistics, watching for some response. She got none. "Oh, and one more thing. He has a tail."

He turned his head, just slightly.

"Oh, I see that caught your interest."

"Kakarot will know to keep him out of the moonlight."

"You're not going to take any responsibility at all?" Bulma waited, but Vegeta remained silent. "Fine. No one expected it of you." She laced the last word with deliberate malice, slamming the door behind her.

Vegeta drew a deep breath, let it out in a trembling sigh. His hands went out, catching the sides of the window, his brow resting against the glass. It would take so little, now. To have thought it all over… a shattered fantasy. He dropped to his knees, slid into a senseless heap on the floor. He never felt the knife.

His lips moved, but no voice begged the question he tried to pose. His hands were chained, his feet. Even his tail was tied. Pain washed over him in waves as he watched the blade slice through his tail, a long spiraling cut designed to skin the fur from it. His screams were silent, his body arcing against the straps holding him to the table. He'd lost his voice days ago, screamed himself hoarse.

Near him, on a gurney, was a small dissected corpse. The tiny tail straggled over the edge. Too late, he'd realized he'd been drugged. Tears filled his eyes, he'd been too drugged to stop them from killing his child in that brutally long, painful way. Why were they doing this? He'd thought they were his friends! Why!?

Goten sat up straight, eyes darting wildly around the room before focusing on the small lump he held so securely. His baby was safe. It had just been a nightmare. A terrible, horrible nightmare. And he wasn't staying in the room an instant longer. Moments later, he was out of the hospital gown and into his own clothes. He slipped out the door, the tiny child held tightly cradled against his chest.

No one in the hall. He hurried down it, toward the exit he knew was at the end.

"Goten?"

No other voice could have stopped him. He turned, looking back toward the room he'd just vacated. Vegeta hung onto the doorframe, the hall behind him red with his blood. "Goten?"

"Here." The prince turned at the soft call, braced himself against the door.

"You're leaving?" Vegeta leaned heavily against the wall, pushing himself down the corridor towards Goten.

"I… What's wrong?" He moved swiftly back to the prince. "Vegeta! What happened?"

"Goten." Vegeta put one hand on the boy's shoulder, looked down at the child. "You… must take care of him. Keep him safe. Don't… don't stay here. Take these." He extended a capsule case, his hand shaking badly. "Everything you need. Please… hurry. Go. Now."

Goten took the case, slid it into a pocket. "I'm going." He gasped as Vegeta sagged against him, the last dregs of energy gone, and lowered the prince's body carefully to the floor. "Vegeta! Oh… dammit Vegeta! I love you." He held the still figure an instant longer, then ran.

Where would he be safe? What was in the capsules? He hadn't looked. Pausing beneath a streetlight, he pulled the case out and examined the contents. Vegeta hadn't lied. Transportation, shelter, food, water, it was all there. And a note. He read it through once, then again, horrified. Goten popped one of the cars, and drove himself out of town. Where did Capsule Corp. not have any influence?

Nowhere. No matter how small the town, there was always a capsule shop. But, he didn't need to be in a town. Vegeta had provided them with everything they'd need to set up house wherever he wanted. And it wasn't like Goten didn't know how to live off the land. He'd done that for years.

"Trust only in Kakarot." The line from the note hung in his mind. Kakarot… his father. How could Vegeta be so sure his father, Bulma's best friend, could be trusted? Wait. Kakarot. Kakarot wasn't Bulma's best friend. That was Goku. Kakarot was a loyal Saiyan warrior. A smothered sob escaped. How was he to tell when Kakarot was around, and not Goku? His father could switch from one identity to the other with absolutely no warning! And how was he supposed to consider his own father untrustworthy!?

He kept his power level smashed down as low as he could for the next several weeks. When a vehicle ran out of gas, he abandoned it, and would run for miles on foot before choosing another. And he avoided the smaller towns, choosing instead the anonymity of larger ones, where everyone wouldn't know everyone else, when he absolutely had to stop for supplies. After three months of running, he finally found an area where he felt he could be safe.

Goten hadn't seen a town for almost a week, and the forested area he was in was plentiful in game and harvestables. He'd checked the size of the capsule house Vegeta had given him, and set it up as soon as he found a sheltering cave big enough to hold it. He wanted no evidence of anyone living there to show from the air. His son was quite happy to settle into the cradle Goten found in it.

"I still need to give you a name, little one," he told the boy sadly. "I've been so busy running, I haven't had time to give it any thought. Vegeta and I talked about it, but we'd thought we had another month to decide.

"We were so wrong." Hopelessly, Goten searched for the energy signal he'd held so dear, the one he knew he would never feel again. "We were wrong. She killed him in the end, just like she'd planned all along. Broke him, took his pride, his honor, and finally his life."

He pulled the note from the capsule case, read it through again. "He loved me, Veten. He showed me, over and over, and I kept leaving him. Because he never said the words. And I was too afraid to tell him…. To him, I was always the spawn of Kakarot. Someone he would never mate. He despised my father for so long, it just spilled over. And when we were finally able to tell each other, it was too late. Too late…" Goten tucked the note away, pulled his son close and just cuddled him as tears slid down his face.

"Veten was the name we talked about most, a blending of our own. So that is your name, my son."

He'd hidden himself away very well, Trunks knew. He didn't understand why his mother was so determined to find Goten, however. He'd asked, but her reply, that Goten had no idea how to care for a child, didn't ring true. He searched again, finding Goku, Gohan, the others. There was no trace of Goten, as usual.

Could he be dead? Goku swore his son was still alive, that he would know if his youngest was dead. But not even his searches had turned up so much as a clue. And Goku was the most sensitive when it came to such things. Trunks had even gone to visit Dende, but the young Namek had spread his hands and said he couldn't help them find Goten or his son.

And if Dende couldn't help, who could?

A sudden flare. Trunks turned, facing where he'd thought he'd felt something. He waited, but there was no further disruption from that source.

Goku spun. His son! Only a brief signal, not long enough to lock onto. But, he had the direction now. Choosing a chi at random, he jumped closer to the area where he'd felt his son. "Goten, where are you?"

"Tell me your name."

"Goten! Where are you?" Goku spun toward his son's voice, to see no one. Close enough to hear, but he couldn't sense the boy. "Goten?"

"Who are you?"

"Who?" Goku asked, confused. "I'm your father, Goten! Where are you?"

"Tell me your name."

He turned again, beginning to grow angry. "You know my name!"

"Why are you here?"

Goku looked ready to cry. "But… you called me! I came because you called me."

"Who came?"

"Goten, this isn't funny! Where are you? Are you alright?" Goku turned again, reaching out to find the boy's signal.

"Who came?"

"I don't understand!" Goku turned a complete circle, sensing no one, seeing no one. This part of the city was deserted. "Why do you keep asking me that? I'm your father! Goku! Please, Goten, where are you?"

A soft sigh, then silence. "Goten? Goten!" His search of the area proved fruitless, and he returned home despondent. His favorite climbing tree became his perch as he thought over the brief visit. Who came? What is your name? Why did you come? But, Goten had known the answers to all those questions. He was Goku, Goten's father, and he had come because Goten had called for him.

A colder, harder thought. He was also Kakarot, the Saiyan warrior, loyal to the Prince.

Goku stared down at the ground through the shifting leaves. Vegeta… had never liked him, considering Goku a baka. Which, Goku admitted, he frequently was, not being particularly smart. But his Saiyan self was a different story. A common soldier, but no fool, and Vegeta had depended on his loyalty.

His loyalty. To the prince. To the prince's line. Suddenly, that half surged to the fore, and he understood. Kakarot returned to the city where Goten had been.

"Goten. I know you can hear me. How is the boy?" He waited, senses alert.

After a time, he got his reply. "Well enough."

He spun, still too slow to catch the boy's movement. "And you?"

"Who asks?"

"I am Kakarot. You know that."

A movement to his right, and Goten stepped from the shadows. "I am well enough."

"Where is the boy?"

"Where he will be safe. Vegeta…" The young man's voice broke, and he swallowed convulsively. "Vegeta told me to keep him safe, gave me what we needed to make our own home."

"Then you know?" Kakarot wasn't quite so harsh.

"He died… in my arms, ensuring our son's survival." Slowly, Goten extended a much handled scrap of paper. Kakarot took it from him, read it through. Blinked in disbelief. Read it again.

"He never taught me to read Saiyan," Goten said. "So I don't know what that last part says."

"By the exchange of blood and blows and love I chose my lifemate. Serve him as you served me, our son is my heir," Kakarot translated quietly. "Teach my son and mate our ways and the histories and traditions we held dear. Raise my son to be proud of his heritage, teach yours of his." His hand trembled slightly as he returned the paper.

"Lifemate? But…" Goten folded the scrap carefully, tucked it away again. "He was so proud, you know. I heard what he told you, about mating with your spawn. I never thought he would change his mind. And I heard him, the day the baby was born. Telling you he didn't want me there anymore. I know why, now." His hand covered the pocket with the note.

"Yes." Kakarot bowed his head, just for a moment. Respect for the dead. "We both do, now. I never would have believed it."

"No. Trunks… he doesn't know."

"You don't think he's safe?"

Goten shook his head. "No, I think he's safe enough. And Gohan. It's you, the child, and myself. You're the last of the full-blooded Saiyans. The baby and I… that's revenge, I think. I dreamed it, Daddy. I saw what would happen. I was leaving when Vegeta came to warn me."

Kakarot gathered his trembling son close. Barely seventeen, never on his own before, and now taking care of both himself and his own child. He'd been betrayed by people he trusted. And told not to trust his father. What to say? "I missed your birthday."

"It's okay," Goten replied with a weak chuckle. "I didn't want a big party anyway." He pulled back, just a little, and told his father the dream. "I won't go back, Dad. I've got a place now, where we're safe."

"You don't think I am though." Kakarot frowned.

Goten spread his hands. "I don't know. Not since you've gotten your memory back."

"In other words, the clown is perfectly safe, I'm not."

Goten bobbled his head, a half-grin on his face. "Yeah, if you wanna put it that way… that sounds right."

Kakarot made a disgruntled noise. "Well, I guess I'll just stay with you, then. How else can I teach you?" he added when Goten started to protest. "Or the boy?"

Trunks gasped. Goku! He'd just blinked out of existence! What could have happened? And in the same area where he thought he'd felt Goten for an instance. He wasn't his parents' child for nothing, however. After a moment of panic, it made sense. Goten was hiding. Goku would have damped his own energy signal so that no one would find him.

Again, he wondered what could have happened to send Goten into hiding. It had to have something to do with his father. Why else would his father have been down in the room where Goten had had the baby, after telling Goku to get him out of the house before morning? He knew Goku hadn't taken him, he and Goku had found Vegeta when they'd gone to see the new arrival.

Tears. He wiped them from his face. Only here, high above the roof of Capsule Corp., had he shed any tears for his father. His otherwise unlamented father. He'd been astonished by the anger that had darkened his mother's visage before the mask of calmness descended, and more surprised that she had merely said she'd see to the cremation. There had been no tears from her, or his sister. Weren't girls supposed to cry? He wiped wet cheeks, turned to face the wind.

How could they not miss him? Sure, his father had been moody and difficult, spending most of his time training and with rarely a kind word for them, but still! He sighed, chalking it up to another unsolvable mystery. His mother had shown more interest in Goten's disappearance than his father's murder. And she'd ask again, when he went down, if there had been any sign of the boy.

Tonight, he'd lie.

A sharp, panicked spike of energy, abruptly cut off. Goten and Kakarot turned as one. "Trunks!"

"He wasn't safe?" Goten cried in distress. "We have to do something!"

"I'll get him." Kakarot frowned, concentrating on Trunks' now very faint signal. "Got him." He vanished.

"Dad!" Too late, Goten realized it could have been a trap. He spent several worried minutes before his father reappeared, an unconscious, bleeding Trunks slung over his shoulder. Goten hurried to help. "This much damage in so short a time?"

"He's going to need a doctor. This is more than I can handle," Kakarot said after a moment.

"Gohan. He's probably targeted too, after all."

"I'll bring him and Pan."

"No. Just him." Goten had a faraway look. "Not Pan. She is safe, just like Bra is."

His father shot him a horrified look, then vanished again. It was some time before he reappeared with Gohan, and by then, Goten had managed to get some of Trunks' bleeding under control. Gohan took one look, then set to tending the demi-Sayain.

"Why is it they must get hurt when there aren't any senzu beans?" he asked rhetorically, threading a needle to begin stitching yet another gash. "And what happened?"

Trunks' eyes flickered as Gohan stitched. Goten noticed. "Hey! I think he's coming around!"

"Ow."

Gohan ignored him, but did speak to Trunks. "What did you do, Trunks, try training at your father's level?"

"No, my own." Trunks clenched his teeth, grinding out the words. "The GR went haywire… training bots just came on, and the gravity fluctuating."

Goten and Kakarot exchanged a look. "That happened to Vegeta, too," Goten said quietly. "The day before he died."

"Mom… never got around to fixing it," Trunks told him. "I'd forgot…. OW! That hurt!"

"Antiseptic does," Gohan replied, unperturbed. "And I get to use a lot more of it."

"Can I please pass out again?" Trunks pleaded.

Kakarot bonked him on the head. "Wish granted."

"Dad!" Gohan complained. "Did you really need to do that?"

"The boy is being weak."

"You sound like Vegeta."

"I am a Saiyan."

Gohan looked up, startled. "That's never stopped you from saying something hurt."

"Dad got his memories back. Didn't he tell you?"

Again, Gohan ignored his younger brother. He turned his attention back to his patient, finishing his disinfecting and stitching. "Knowing him, he'll be fine in a couple days, anyway. But if this happened in the GR, what's he doing here?" He looked to his father for the answer.

"I brought him here. It seems whoever went after Vegeta is after the rest of the Saiyan males, as well."

"What!" Gohan jerked to his feet. "What? After us? Why?"

Kakarot's tail twitched spasmodically; he wrapped it around his waist. Gohan's eyes went to it, widening. "Someone is after the Saiyan males. Vegeta was taken from the GR, originally. He'd been knocked unconscious, revived long enough to recognize he was being taken out before passing out again. He'd thought the person could be trusted.

"She would have gotten Goten as well, but Vegeta warned him to run, to keep Veten safe. That was the night he was murdered." He nodded once, sharply, as Gohan gasped. "He was murdered. Stabbed. He hadn't recovered fully from his last illness, and just couldn't take another attack."

"He was bleeding so much," Goten said softly. "So much. The hallway wall… he pulled himself along it, to warn us. So that his son would live. Red with his blood, the wall, the floor." His hand clenched, eyes closing to hold in the tears.

Kakarot moved, pulling his youngest son against his chest. "You saved the child, as he told you," he soothed, running a hand over Goten's long hair. "You couldn't have saved him. It was too late when he found you."

Gohan looked at the two, a grimace of distaste twisting his handsome features. "Why is it you don't have a problem with him having sex with a man, or having a baby?"

"Why would I?" Kakarot flattened a mass of spikes so that he could see his older son. "I told you, I'm a Saiyan. It surprised me that Vegeta chose him, a half-breed, not that he had a child. All of us are capable of having children."

"What?!!"

"I'm Saiyan. Any Saiyan is capable of having a child. Me, you, your brother, Trunks, even Vegeta. There aren't any gender hang-ups among Saiyans because of that."

"Are you saying you would have fucked Vegeta?" Gohan asked incredulously.

"I would have, and been proud to have been chosen. If Vegeta hadn't hated Goku so much, even you would have fucked him. Instead, he took you to a whorehouse. Did you enjoy it?" Kakarot's tone was cool, almost mocking.

Gohan's face drained of color, remembering that particular week of his life. "No." Then what his father said struck him. "What do you mean, hated Goku so much? You are Goku!"

"I am Goku. I am Kakarot. Didn't you hear your brother? I have my memory back."

At his feet, Trunks groaned. Gohan dropped back down, letting tending to his patient cover the myriad of unsettling emotions his father's words had evoked.

Goten, suddenly unsure now whether it was Goku or Kakarot holding him, slipped from his father's loose grasp. Trunks' return to consciousness gave him the distraction he needed. With a last, sad look at the others, he darted away, vanishing before they realized he was gone again. Kakarot was warned, and Gohan. They would tell Trunks. But he would heed Vegeta's warning, understanding suddenly that Goku - his tenderhearted, trusting father - would never believe that his best friend for ages could be so evil. Not even with the proof of Vegeta's torture and death in front of him.

It was several minutes before they realized he'd gone. A sudden worried look crossed Goku/Kakarot's face. "Where's Goten?"

It took only a moment to sling Veten into his carrier, to reduce the house to a capsule again. Goten ghosted through the forest he'd been calling home, making his way further from his father, suppressing his energy and his son's thoroughly. He couldn't risk either of them being found, not now. Not after finally understanding Vegeta's concern. How he wished he knew his father's Instant Transmission technique! He could… but it didn't matter. He'd never learned it. He hadn't taken his training particularly seriously, after all.

Now, oh, how he wished he had! He'd learned how to hide his energy and himself simply to be able to escape his father's constant demands for a "friendly spar." But as for fighting and techniques? He'd mostly blown that off, not thinking it of any importance, not anymore. He'd been wrong.

His vision blurred with tears, he paused. It wouldn't do to get hurt and have to reveal himself in order to get help. Oh, why did his father have to have what basically amounted to a split personality? How could the Kakarot side fulfill Vegeta's last order if he, Goten, had to keep away from the Goku side? He dropped to the ground, cuddling his son close, crooning gently as he fed him. So complicated, his life had become.

What should he do? His father could switch from one personality to the other with no warning. He could never be sure that Kakarot wouldn't suddenly, right in the middle of a lesson, revert to Goku with all his dislike of the excessive ferocity and love of bloodshed the Saiyans had. Had had, he amended suddenly. Only one true Saiyan was left, and he usually ignored his heritage.

He looked down at his small son. So strong, and so like his father. Upswept hair, black eyes. Even the chin was the same. Those tiny black eyes, looking up at him, so full of trust. He wouldn't let this boy down the same way he had his father. If he'd only stayed with Vegeta! If he'd stayed, instead of going back to his own bed, Vegeta wouldn't have gone back to her house. If he'd stayed with Vegeta after that first glorious week, his lover would never have gotten so weak. If he'd only paid attention to those silent signals, and ignored what he'd said! A teardrop splashed on his son's cheek, and the baby eeped.

"It's okay, Veten. She won't find you. I won't let her find you."