I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out! I had school, and the holidays, and all my new presents to play with, and… I just forgot. Please forgive me?
Okay, I kind of made a mistake on my last chapter in the author notes. This chapter won't have the other original character I was planning on in it. In this chapter the whole thing about Kris being only five years old when Planet Vegeta blew up at least 30 years before will be explained. Another thing, I won't be able to write for a while after this, my grades are slipping and I need to bring them back up. Also, thank you pruningshears, The Vagrant, and Lireal for reviewing my last chapter! I love reviews, even if I don't get a lot of them. Oh well. On with the fic!
Chapter 4: Relics and Explanations
It had been two months since Kris had been brought to Capsule Corp., and one month since the Briefs had adopted her. She was going to be enrolled into school in another month or two, even though she protested loudly and violently at having to be around a bunch of noisy smelly little kids who just happened to be her age. Despite all the tantrum throwing, she was still going. (A/N: That rhymed! Okay, I'll shut up now…))
But Kris wasn't thinking about any of that. Because right then, Trunks had Mr. Huggles and was dangling the precious stuffed animal above her reach and taunting her.
"Give him back!" she shouted, jumping into the air and waving her hands over her head in a futile attempt to grab Mr. Huggles back.
"Come and get him!"
Meanwhile, Bra was in her room playing with her toys, and Bulma was, where else, in the lab working on some project or another.
Eventually, Kris kicked Trunks in the shins and got her stuffed animal back, but that's not important. What is important is what Vegeta was doing at the time. Right then, he was far away from Capsule Corp., in the middle of a desert, looking for somewhere else to train besides inside the GR. Sometimes what was needed was a vast wasteland full of small defenseless animals and large boulders to explode, rather than those damned bots that kept having to be repaired. That, and he had broken the GR anyway earlier that day. So, our dear Saiyan prince was flying out in the middle of nowhere, looking for the perfect spot to blow some things up.
As he was flying, he happened to spot a huge crater in the ground below. Not uncommon, as the Earth Special Forces were always accidentally blowing something up. A crater wasn't really anything new or surprising. What was strange however was that it was the only mark around. If it was the site of a sparring match, there would have been many more craters, some blast marks, trenches where bodies had skidded across the ground… and there really was no other explanation for it being there that Vegeta could think of at the moment. So, of course, he flew down to investigate.
Landing silently on the rim of the crater, Vegeta looked down into it. A round, metal object rested at the bottom, covered in a fine layer of dirt, obscuring any markings or distinguishing features that might have been inscribed onto it. This only further piqued the prince's curiosity. He flew down into the crater and landed next to it, blowing some of the dust off in the process.
What it revealed confirmed his suspicions. Saiyan writing was printed on the side of what was now most definitely a Saiyan space pod. On the other side, the door to the inside of the small ship was slightly open, enough for a good deal of dirt to seep inside. Vegeta opened the door completely with relative ease and peered inside.
It was a standard pod, one seat, a control panel and circular window in the door, a drawer underneath the seat for storing supplies. Vegeta's eyes were drawn to two items lying on the floor and he picked them up, brushing the dirt off. One was a silver scouter with a blue lens, obviously custom made. The other object was a necklace with some kind of tough hide as the cord and a metal pendant attached to it. The pendant had a white, almost clear stone imbedded in the center, with triangular marks reaching out from it. Think of a caricature of a sun and you've got it. Vegeta's eyes narrowed as old memories came back into focus.
'She wore this. All the time, even when it got her in trouble…' he thought as he stared idly at it. 'Of course. Konora. She's Konora. I knew she looked familiar…' His thoughts trailed off. He clutched the scouter and necklace in his hand and took off.
'There may be hope for the Saiyan race yet…'
~ .~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .
It was late in the afternoon by the time Vegeta came back. He had stopped to spar with Kakkarot on the way, and that had taken a couple of hours.
"I'm hungry… when can we eat?" Kris was whining when he stepped in.
"As soon as the cooking bots finish making it," Bulma replied evenly. The entire Briefs family was seated in the living room, waiting for one of the robotic maids to glide in and announce that dinner was ready. Bulma's mother and father had just come back from a vacation a couple days ago, so they were there as well. Upon finding out that Bulma had adopted Kris, Mrs. Briefs immediately went to work spoiling her "new grandchild" as much as she spoiled the other two. Kris didn't seem to mind it. (A/N: See? I didn't forget about them! Aren't you happy? No? Darn it…)
Kris sighed heavily and flopped around on the couch until she positioned so that her feet were on the backrest and her head was hanging over the cushions and her arms hanging down limply. She spotted Vegeta from her upside-down position and smiled cheerfully.
"Hi Veggie!" she chimed. Vegeta winced. Ever since she had overheard Goku call him that she had been using it. She knew it annoyed him to no end, and yet she didn't seem to fear any retribution on his part. Probably because she knew that as long as she stayed near Bulma, he couldn't do anything to her. She was definitely smarter than she looked.
"Well, it's about time you got back!" Bulma scolded. "If you had been any later, we would have had dinner without you, and you'd have to get your own food! What exactly were doing all this time? Oh, let me guess. Training, right? I swear Vegeta, that's all you ever do! Eat and train!" The scolding went on for a little while longer.
Kris was grinning to herself and kicking her legs back and forth happily. She tuned the voices of everyone around her out. She closed her eyes and started humming. Nothing in particular, just mindlessly humming, like any little kid would do. She forgot everything around her; the voices of her adopted family fading further from her mind, the feeling of the furniture's fabric disappearing slowly… She was still humming when she heard a voice echoing in her head.
"Be still little oneSleep on undisturbed
Everything is right
With the world tonight
So just close your eyes and dream…""What are singing?"
Kris snapped her eyes open and abruptly stopped singing. She hadn't even realized that she had started. She blinked a couple times and sat up, remembering where she was.
"Huh?" she asked.
"You were singing something," Bra answered. She had been the one to snap Kris out of her trance. "It sounded nice, but I couldn't understand what the words were,"
Kris was at a loss for words. She really didn't know what she had been singing. Heck, she didn't even know she had been singing until Bra told her.
"I… I don't know…" she muttered. There was silence in the room and every set of eyes was on her. Apparently, she had sung loud enough for everyone to hear. Kris felt a chill go up her spine and she fidgeted nervously. She hated it when people stared at her, it made her feel like they were waiting for her to move so they could pounce on her. Like she was a rabbit and they were a pack of wolves…
The robotic maid they had been waiting for rolled into the room just then, breaking the tension. There was a miniature stampede to the kitchen by the three youngest in the room, and dinner was started, and the song was momentarily forgotten.
~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~
After dinner, Bra went to a sleepover at Pan's house, Bra, Trunks, and Mr. Briefs were in the lab working on a new project, and Mrs. Briefs had gone to bed. Thus, it was only Kris and Vegeta in the living room with the television turned on to a boxing match.(A/N: They wouldn't watch wrestling because wrestling is fake. I don't care what you say about it, it is fake. And stupid, but that's just my opinion..) Kris was engrossed with the program, eyes glazed over and mouth hanging open. (A/N: That's how my younger sister watches tv. It's so funny, you can't even get a response out of her. That's probably not a good thing though.)
Vegeta was only half watching it. The other half of the time he was glancing at Kris, wondering how he was going to explain this…
"Yeah!" Kris exclaimed when one of the fighters punched the other one in the face. She pumped one of her fists in the air and cheered. "That baka doesn't stand a chance! Get 'em!" The cheering continued for a while. Vegeta watched her with a smirk on his face.
'At least she's Saiyan enough to like fighting…' he thought. Kris turned and looked at him. Vegeta took a deep breath. 'Here goes,' he told himself. Kris tilted her head to one side cutely. Why was he looking at her? Didn't he want to watch the fight?
"Brat," he started. He paused before continuing to make sure she was still paying attention. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the scouter and necklace he had found earlier and set them in front of her.
"These are yours." Kris just stared. After a minute, she whispered "Where did you find them?" Vegeta ignored the question and picked up the necklace.
"This," he said, "is a sign of royalty. Only members of the royal family had these. I already told you I was the prince, didn't I?" Kris nodded silently. He put the necklace back down and picked up the scouter next. He looked at it and ran his fingers over it. "And this," he continued "was my sister's…" He glanced at Kris to see what kind of reaction she would have.
Kris blinked a couple times, slowly absorbing the information. Once she came to the realization, her eyes widened considerably and she almost stopped breathing.
'He's… he's my… uncle?!' She blinked a few more times before finally looking at Vegeta. He was expressionless, but looked like he was expecting her to do something other than just blink at him. Kris made a choking sound a couple of times.
"Y-you're…" she stuttered. She made some more choking sounds in her throat, unable to say it. Vegeta raised an eyebrow and finished her sentence for her.
"Your uncle? Yes," he replied. Kris made one more sound and then just sat there, not sure what to do. Vegeta put the scouter back down and Kris redirected her blank stare towards it. She hesitantly reached out and picked it up. She passed it from hand to hand, playing with it, and lifted it up to her face to inspect it more closely. She somehow managed to fit it over her ear correctly and although it was a little large for her face, it seemed to work for her.
"Everything's all two colored…" Kris said, looking around curiously. She closed the eye that wasn't covered by the blue glass and looked at Vegeta.
"You're all blue!" she exclaimed and collapsed in a fit of giggles. Vegeta rolled his eyes. After she was finished with that, she picked up the necklace. She toyed with that for a while too, but didn't put it on. She looked like she wanted to say something, but kept stopping herself.
"Spit it out brat," Vegeta growled. Kris looked up from the seat cushions of the couch to Vegeta's face.
"What was my mommy like? I don't really remember much…" she trailed off and looked back down at the couch again.
"You remember well enough," Vegeta said. Kris looked up again.
"Huh?"
"That song you were singing earlier," he explained. "That song was a Saiyan lullaby. You heard it from your mother. You'll probably remember more about her later." Kris didn't say anything for a minute. Then:
"What about my daddy?"
Vegeta paused. He really didn't know much about his older sister's mate.
"Well," he started, "He was an elite warrior-"
"What's that?" Kris interrupted. Vegeta sighed. It would be a long night…
"An elite is a warrior who is one of the strongest Saiyans on the planet, but not stronger than the royal family." He answered. Kris thought for a moment.
"Is Ka-ka-rot an elite?" she asked.
"No. He's just a third-class baka."
"Oh."
There was silence for about five minutes, bar the sounds from the television that was left on.
"So you're really my uncle?"
"Didn't I already answer that?"
"I know that, I'm just making sure! Geesh…"
More silence. Then:
"Can I call you Uncle Veggie now?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because it's a stupid name."
"No it's not."
"Yes, it is."
"Is not."
"Be quiet brat."
Kris finally did shut up and turned her attention back to the boxing match. At roughly 9 pm, it was still going on. Kris yawned and struggled to keep her eyes open long enough to see who won.
She suddenly felt cold all over as she neared the brink of unconsciousness. She curled into a ball and shivered. Her eyes shut against her will as she drifted into sleep, and into one of her dream-memories. Vegeta looked over at her as she shivered violently.
'Strange,' he thought. 'It isn't cold at all in here,' He took off the leather jacket he was wearing (A/N: Just pretend he was wearing a leather jacket the entire time, okay?) and put it over Kris as a makeshift blanket. She whimpered in her sleep and clutched the jacket closer to her. She still felt cold, and images of a red planet were floating in her head. It just kept getting further and further away from her…
'Damn it, not again,' Vegeta thought. 'Why does that brat always whimper in her sleep? If I wake her up she'll start crying, and if I let her sleep… she'll wake up and start crying. Damn it.' He shook her gently to wake her. Kris's eyes snapped open and she tensed up. Once she realized where she was she relaxed slightly. She still felt cold, however. She shivered again and closed her eyes tightly.
"What the hell is wrong with you? It's not cold!" Vegeta not quite shouted.
"B-but I f-feel c-cold!" Kris protested. She hated being cold, she always had. It made her feel bad, plus the fact that it was uncomfortable. She curled up inside the jacket in an effort to conserve body heat. Vegeta looked at her quizzically. What was wrong with her? What had she dreamt about this time? Well, he could have one of his questions answered at least.
"What were you dreaming about this time Konora?" he asked. Kris visibly tensed up again.
'Konora? I think I remember that… my name? Konora… yeah, that's what mommy called me…' she thought. She started to speak.
"There was this red planet and it kept getting smaller and smaller. Then, there was a bright light and everything started shaking. That's it. And I was cold in my dream too." She replied shortly. She promptly went back to shivering. Vegeta finally gave in and picked Kris up and set her on his lap.
"Huh?" Kris muttered.
"Be quiet and sit still, unless you want to freeze." Vegeta growled out. Kris stayed still and didn't say anything. He gathered some pink colored energy into his hand and pressed it against Kris's back. Her body absorbed it and she immediately fell asleep. She had stopped shivering too. Vegeta sighed in relief. She couldn't talk if she was asleep, and that was a good thing. He needed time to figure out her latest resurfaced memory. The red planet was easy enough. It was Planet Vegeta. She was traveling away from it, so it was shortly after her last memory. A bright light. The planet exploding? That would make sense. She was still an infant when that had happened, so she had been launched right before the planet blew up. Everything shaking was obvious too. The shockwaves from the blast would have knocked the pod around a lot. But then it would have been knocked off course and it had to have sustained some damage from the debris… and suddenly it clicked. How Kris could be five years old when she should be almost as old as Goku.
The newer pods had a suspended animation feature built into them. It was just incase something happened to pierce the hull and nothing could be done to repair it. It would automatically kick in and virtually freeze the person inside it, keeping them exactly as they were for an indefinite amount of time. Kris, Konora then, had been placed inside one of these new models and sent off planet just before it was blown up. The debris from the destroyed planet hit the pod and punctured the hull, so the suspended animation feature was activated. And, twenty-five years later, she landed on Earth and was defrosted, so to speak. All he knew after that was that she had been kept in a laboratory. No one could get any more information out of her.
Vegeta was brought out of his thoughts by movement from Kris. She had shifted so that she was now curled up on his lap, still covered by the jacket, and her tail had wrapped around his wrist. She was purring contentedly. Vegeta smiled a little at this. Even if she wasn't his child, she was still his niece, and therefore it was his duty to raise her in the absence of her parents. That, and she was the last full-blooded female Saiyan in the universe. She couldn't be left to the weakling Earthlings, she was too precious. She should be taught about the proud Saiyan race, learn how to fight, find a mate and- that train of thought stopped abruptly. Find a mate? A human mate? Even if she did find a human male who could take on a Saiyan female of royal blood, it would only result in more half-breeds. And while he didn't find anything necessarily wrong with half-human, half-saiyan brats, he had been hoping that with another full-blooded Saiyan added into the mix that the Saiyan race still had a chance at survival.
But apparently that wasn't meant to be. With every generation, the amount of Saiyan blood in the veins of his descendants would get smaller and smaller, until it might as well not be there at all. Vegeta sighed heavily, scooped Kris up out of his lap and stood up. He was getting himself depressed, and he didn't particularly enjoy being depressed. (A/N: * winces * That sounded bad even to me. And I wrote it. I'm sorry.)
He strode to Kris's bedroom and put her into her bed. He tried to get the jacket away from her, but she clung to it like a barnacle. He gave up on that, managed to get her tail off his wrist, and left the room. He stood outside the door for a minute, falling back into thought.
'Well,' he thought, 'if I thought that Kakkarot and I were the last Saiyans, and she turns up, then there just might be more… feh, what am I thinking?' And with that he stalked off to the GR to train until breakfast the next morning.
So, what do you think? Did I take long enough getting this chapter out? I'm going to keep making them at this pace unless I get lots more reviews. I only got three for my last one! I'm not trying to sound greedy or anything, but I want reviews for my work! Poetry is great, but it never gets much feedback. So, I kind of expect more people to leave reviews for a fan fiction. * sighs * Oh well.
I'm not telling you anything about the next chapter, so there! You can suffer! Ha!
Changing subject completely, has anyone reading this heard of Neopets? Well I just figured out HTML, so my pet's web page is so beautiful now! It's really cute, you should look at it. My username is saiyajingirl17, please Neomail me if you're on Neopets too!
Okay, I don't care if you don't even have anything to say about this story, just leave a review so that I know more than six people have read my fic!