Disclaimer: Don't own it, never will.

A/N: This took WAY too long to update. So long I think my writing style may have changed a bit. Well, I guess that's what happens when you write an epic over years. But I am experimenting a bit with my writing style, so please tell me what you think of it.

****

Narrow ebony eyes discern the young boy sleeping under the warm woolen blanket. Goku's progress as his heir is coming along nicely as the third class is becoming more and more like the ouji everyday. A small victorious smirk comes to Vegeta's lips. The boy's going to be his double in no time.

{Three years,} the ouji thinks as he brushes the bangs away from Goku's face. {We've already been here for three whole years.} It seemed like a lifetime. It felt like it, too.

The hard face gets misted with drizzle as a strong gust blows right in through the open window. Vegeta scowls, "Damn! It's raining again!"

He gives the gray and stormy sky a glare as if he expects the sky to open up right before him. It doesn't. Vegeta mutters, "Curses," under his breath and closes the shutters.

Well...at least the rain doesn't hurt as much as before. His pride didn't allow him to stay depressed; neither does taking care of Goku...

With a heavy sigh, he plops himself into a chair by Goku's head. {The kid's so puny!} he thinks to himself, clearly disapproving of the lack of bulkiness. Not really caring whether it will wake Goku up or not, he picks up the young saiyajin's arm and glares at it. {Damn! He's bone skinny! Where's his muscle?!}

It isn't as bad as all that, but by saiyajin standards it's devastating.

{Maybe it's still compacting,} Vegeta reasons. {He's still just as strong as before. And he definitely eats just as much. So why's he so scrawny?! It's annoying!}

Goku then tries to shift in his sleep, but the ouji's still holding his arm; so he wakes with a painful jab to his shoulder. Blinking away his sleep, he glares at his adoptive father. "What did you wake me up for?"

"I don't need a reason," the older saiyajin counters. "Now change."

Goku grumbles and gets out of bed, donning the clothes hanging on the end of his bed frame. Vegeta watches him unabashedly and comments, "You're getting taller, but you're as thin as a stick."

"I am not!" the younger saiyajin pouts, putting on his shirt.

The ouji mutters, "I've never seen a saiyajin your age so puny before, besides myself. Are you eating right?"

"Yes."

"What about training have you been slacking off?"

"No!" Goku cries out in irritation. "Can't you get off my back?! You've been asking me the same question every morning every day for the past month! It's like I'm not supposed to be growing up this way! How would you know?! Stop pretending to be some sort of psychic!"

But he instantly regrets it after he sees the dangerous look rising in Vegeta's eyes. Only a second later, he's thrown out of the tree house and into the rain. Goku ungracefully falls face first into an indian red mud puddle, getting himself soaked immediately.

Vegeta's angry voice echoes down from the cabin, "You are GROUNDED!! Don't come back here until you've put some muscle on you, you ungrateful BRAT!!" With that, the ouji slams the door on the cabin, making it shake on its foundations.

Goku stares blankly at the door almost in shock of what happened, until he sneezes violently, as he's soaked to the bone with ice cold water. He sniffles and gets himself up out of the mud. He starts muttering to himself, bitterly, "I can't believe that he actually 'grounded' me! I wonder if this is how all the other saiyajin no ouji get treated."

Suddenly his stomach grumbles its hunger in protest of the lack of food. Goku looks up at the stormy sky and yells, "Stop raining! I can't make a fire if you keep doing that!"

As if on cue, it starts pouring ten times worse. And to add to his torture, he can smell food cooking from the cabin.

~Don't come back until you've put some muscle on you, you ungrateful brat!~

With his eyes tearing up, Goku fights his hunger and drops to the muddy floor to start push-ups.

****

Vegeta sits by the window of the cabin, not paying any heed to the steaming bowl of wild rice porridge absently being stirred in his hands. His thoughts are elsewhere as he watches the young boy training in the rain.

Inside he mind, subconscious thought fight against each other in a deep internal struggle that he only receives silent echoes of.

~~~

"You have to do it sometime," said Sense.

"It's not right," shouted Pride. "He's too puny!"

"Hardly worth being called a man," Dignity agreed.

"Oh, you all know that a saiyajin's coming of age is at 12," Sense argued. "It would be far worse if you did nothing."

Judgement had not said anything as he carefully considered their points. Action was beside him, immobile; Judgement's servant unless Passion managed to steal him away to make Vegeta act without thinking.

But Passion watched the debate with indifference, giving a bored yawn before deciding to leave.

Suddenly a small voice spoke up. "It probably won't matter at all. Once Dende finds us, they'll wish the boy back into a grown man again," False- Hope said hesitantly. No one paid him much mind at all.

Judgement gave False-Hope a queer look and asked, "So you think we should just let the boy go? After all that's happened?" He looked up at the rest of the thoughts, "For the record, who says we should disown him?"

All unanimously yelled 'NAY' with Love shouting the loudest. Pride gave him a heated look though he grudgingly said nay as well.

False-Hope, small and frail, knew he was defeated and slinked back into the depths of Vegeta's mind without so much as another word.

Sense decided to put in again. "We have one week tops before it is too late to do the ceremony. We can't just wait for him to puff up like a balloon."

"It's buff up, not puff up, you pansy!" Pride growled in annoyance.

"I agree!" Dignity agreed.

Sense looked at him in extreme disdain, "Why do you always agree with Pride?! Do you know how annoying that is?!"

Judgement snapped, "Enough! This debate is turning into a squabble! Now Sense makes sense, so we go with his plan. Pride and Dignity, you can like it or lump it, but it will be done. Action, go."

Action gave a quick nod, before trotting off.

Pride and Dignity grumbled, while Suspicion whispered in Paranoia's ear, "Betch'a Sense bribed Judge."

~~~

Vegeta, without the slightest clue as to the bizarre way his mind works, decides that he would start preparations for the ceremony.

****

Absolutely exhausted, a very cold and very wet Goku flops down into the mud, feeling like he's ready to die. His stomach has been eating at his insides for the past seventy-two hours and he's been training since Vegeta threw him out of the tree house. Not to mention the frickin' monsoon hasn't let up at all!

He takes a look at his arm to see if there's been any improvement.

Nuthin'

With a frustrated groan, Goku decides that maybe he should just let himself soak in the mud for a while. Yeah, that sounds nice...

Then a dark figure leans over him, blocking the rain from splattering in big wet gobs on his face. A gruff voice orders, "come inside," before the figure retreats back out of sight. Looking confused, Goku sits up and sees his father climb up to the cabin door, leaving it wide open. Guess he's not grounded anymore.

Quickly following suit, Goku clambers up to the luminescent doorway. He takes one look into the warm cabin before reeling back in shock.

All the furniture is gone, the walls stripped bare, leaving the room completely empty except for his father, ten large pots of food on the ground, and a large foreign ring of symbols scorched into the very wood of the floor.

He recognizes it immediately from the description from his lessons and his eyes brighten with excitement until Vegeta gives him a reprimanding look for not looking cross. The Ring of the Ancients; used only for the coming of age ceremony.

His jaw stays slack as he steps into the former living room, staring at the burnt markings. Chuckling, Vegeta calls out, "Stop gaping like a guppy fish and get dried off and changed."

Nodding quickly, Goku runs into the bedroom to get himself ready.

The ouji can feel Goku's excitement as if the boy had been waiting for this for a very long time. Vegeta's smile goes dark as he begins to brood. {Yes, he's been waiting for this for two lifetimes already. No wonder he was so screwy when I first came to Earth. He never had his ceremony.}

The younger saiyajin runs right back out of the room, clean and fresh in a whopping record of 0.2 seconds. Vegeta manages to catch him before he goes to the center of the Ring. "Hey! Not yet! Eat first!"

Truly Goku has to be very excited about this to forget about eating. Especially when his last meal was over three whole days ago. But the reminder of food sends Goku's stomach roaring and the young saiyajin puts a sheepish smile on his face. Vegeta sighs and shakes his head in exasperation. {He's still so much like his old self,} he thinks to himself as Goku sets himself down to gobble up the huge meal that his father prepared for him.

In less than two minutes, the young ouji finishes up the last morsel of food and gives a satisfied burp in compliment. Rolling his eyes almost in resignation, Vegeta issues the boy new orders. "Take care of the dishes while I prepare." Goku stares out into the monsoon and down at the dishes at his feet, wondering if his father really wanted him to go out into the rain. "Dump them already!" Vegeta yells, startling his adoptive son into grabbing all the dishes and chucking them out the window.

Vegeta makes a small cry as he hears the glass and ceramic shatter into pieces on what are probably the roots of the tree. Those were their only dishes... His eye twitches as he sets a furious gaze on his son, so terrible that Goku's afraid that he won't let him go through with the ceremony. To heck with that! Goku's afraid that he's going to ditch him outside again for another three weeks!

However, the ouji works hard to calm himself, trembling as he brought his wrath under control. Through gritted teeth, he asks in an unusually calm voice, "You know what to do, right?"

The young saiyajin nods his head vigorously and hurries to the center of the circle, setting himself in the traditional meditative position on the ground, the first step a Jin'wae must do. With movements, slow and deliberate, Vegeta kneels down in front of him with two coconut halves. Calming himself down after Goku's last and recent mistake, he wears an expression half-serene, half-indifferent, as the appointed Shakla'il should be. Instinct takes over as they begin the steps that were ingrained in their blood before they were even born. This time is sacred, a tradition passed down throughout all the eons of saiyajin history. Now is not the time for any personal issues to be involved. No matter how annoying.

The Shakla'il dips his hand in the first improvised bowl filled with blessed water mixed with the blood of royalty, usually a hard thing for commoners to accommodate but with this situation it wasn't a problem. The water was cured over a period of 36 hours, over a fire of roasting owl flesh, essential for the metaphysical properties of the water to rise. Taking his dripping hand out of the water, the Shakla'il flicked the water over the Jin'wae and repeated the process three more times.

In the next bowl, he dips only two fingers into the substance and they come out covered in a strange brownish goop. Cinnamon paste, in replacement of mashed Tarik, but it would work. The Shakla'il spread the paste over the Jin'wae's temples and right under each eye, then a small dab on the forehead like a holy chakra.

When the anointing is done, the Shakla'il whispers into the Jin'wae's ear, "Hajime" and finally done with his duties Vegeta sits back to watch the show in the far corner of the dark room.

****

Goku can barely believe that this is all happening. He waited for this for so long...and he can't remember wanting anything else more in his life. But even as the Shakla'il, his father, is going through the anointing, a foreign presence of pure panic and anxiety threatens to take over his rational thoughts and disrupt the entire process.

When the command, "Hajime," is finally whispered into his ear he doesn't have time to think about why his body is acting so strangely to all this. He immediately goes through the steps that he ritualized before yet wasn't able to practice. Now he's being pushed to use them without any proper training at all. No! He can't think such things! Self-pity won't make this any easier! He just has to deal with it!

He concentrates as best he can, as best as any Jin'wae can, to the goal of emptying his soul from its vessel, namely his body. It isn't easy. In fact it's the most difficult thing he's ever done in his recountable life. Beads of hard sweat form upon his brow as he focuses all his energy into this one daunting task.

The seconds seem to stretch for days, the minutes for years. Damn his soul for being so resistant! He will not fail in this test! If only he can concentrate just a little bit more...

Suddenly he feels an agonizing suction at his heart, feeling as though his heart is being torn in two. And all time seems to stop.

****

Goku's heart fails him and his mind freezes as his body falls to the wooden boards, as limp as a rag doll. Vegeta's anxiety increases as he watches the body shudder and still, the very essence of death descending on it. He's never seen a real Coming-of-Age ceremony before, not even being able to recollect his own, despite its unusual setting in the hidden chambers of Frieza's ship with only Nappa and Raditz as spectators.

Of course, not being able to remember anything of one's own ceremony is normal for all Jin'wae. It's the soul that changes, and every Jin'wae that comes out of the ceremony feeling like...Vegeta scrunches up his face trying to recollect it. It feel like some great part of you has changed drastically only you have no idea how and you can't remember what you were like before. Unsettling yet natural at the same time.

Vegeta snaps out of his reflections immediately once that he realizes that there's some activity within the circle. What?! Already?! It can't be! He glances down at his watch and checks the time. It's only been ten minutes! Bringing his watch to his ear he checks whether it stopped or not, which is impossible since Bulma marketed this watch as unstoppable. Literally. Ten minutes! It usually takes ten hours!

Looking up he sees the start of the astral manifestation begin to take form. So this is what happens during the ceremony. He watches in fascination as the wisps of blue light, casting a blue hue over the cabin walls, come together forming into slender fingers and a sharp face. Vegeta gives the manifestation a queer look, "Why does it look like an elf?"

Minus the ears, that's exactly what it seems to be. It doesn't even look like Goku at all. Tall and slender but strong none-the-less, and with such burning eyes, making Vegeta's skin crawl as its gaze passes over him. Is this really what his soul looks like? The ouji gives a derisive snort, in spite of his unease, "Dammit! I know I should have waited for him to bulk up more."

Yet his heart swells with pride at such a clear and bright manifestation. Goku was obviously ready for this. After all, the young saiyajin proved to be a man more times than Goku can literally remember.

The scorched symbols on the ground soon start to glow with an eerie green tint as soon as the Jin'wae's manifestation is complete. His strong soul will impress Them well. No doubt They will respond soon.

Vegeta isn't disappointed as in only an hour's wait, he can see the signs of Them emerging. They are the Ancients, blood ancestors of the Jin'wae that come to the manifestation to council it on its shift to manhood. He can sees the wisps of green forming into representations of these spirits as They come out to join the Jin'wae.

But wait- something...something isn't right here. Vegeta stiffens as the Ancients take forms and step into the ring with the Goku's soul manifestation. They're...They're all...

His mind starts to reel in shock as he realizes that the Ancients, Goku's Ancients, are the very same saiyajin whose portraits once stood in the Royal Palace of Bejito-sei. Not minding the fact that They ALL look like elves! But They're royalty! All of Them! Well, some of Them he doesn't recognize, but the majority of Them...

Vegeta sits in numb shock, as the Jin'wae goes to every Ancient to talk with Them. He pinches himself to see if he's dreaming. And he does that several more times. How can they have the same ancestors?! How?! Suddenly, the ouji cries out in a terrified shock when he spots his own father in the crowd!

How...how is it possible? Did They get lost or something? Maybe something went wrong with the anointing or the Ring of the Ancients, but as Vegeta scours his mind for an answer he only gets one possible, yet impossible answer back. He looks up and stares at the goings-on. Goku's a definitely a hit with Them, HIS Ancients. They all silently laugh at the Jin'wae's antics, and Vegeta would kill to find out what They're saying.

{They're only one way,} Vegeta thinks to himself, still staring at the circle in petrified shock. {And that's if he's...really my son...}

The prospect scares him and excites him at the same time. There's no way that Goku can be his son, yet there the proof his, right before his eyes in the form of Goku and his blood ancestors.

"He's...He's my son," Vegeta whispers.

"He's really my son," he repeats, this time a smile breaching his face.

"He's my SON!" he yells up, his voice bouncing off the patched wooden ceiling. Completely ignored by the spirits and the Jin'wae, he rushes to the open window for no good to declare it out into the forest.

"DO YOU HEAR THAT, YOU BLOODY GODS OF EARTH?! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE MY LEGACY AWAY! NEVER! HE'S MY SON!!"

Annoyed, the so-called gods of Earth decide to give him a zap with a bolt of lightning, nearly frying him in the process. The spirits and the Jin'wae turn to look at him, a couple of them muttering, "He probably deserves that."

However, Vegeta recovers from his electrocution quickly and slams the shutters closed, humming gaily to himself. He's only ever felt this happy once in his life before, with the birth of his son, Trunks. And whatever the truth is about Goku's Ancients is, the ouji's mind is made up forever.

After ten hours, the Jin'wae finally says goodbye to his Ancients, after gaining their wisdom and stories. Even as the Jin'wae retreats back into his body, he can feel his memories of this ceremony being whisked away by forces unknown to him. Yet he knows in the core of his essence, this experience will remain with him forever.

Half an hour later, a low pulse goes through Goku's body as his heart restarts and his brain starts to work. Oh God! He's so cold! He can feel his very breath coming out in vapors. What the hell happened anyway?

Aching and tired, the young saiyajin looks around the cabin from his vantagepoint on the floor. He can see the sky is clear and a light shade of pink as the unseen sun begins to rise, casting a warm mellow glow into the wooden cabin. His father is in the corner of the room and he's...smiling? Goku blinks at the huge happy smile on Vegeta's face, one so rare and foreign it seems unnatural. Wait a sec, it IS unnatural! Goku shivers at the very look of it. {I wish he'd stop doing that! It's freaking me out!}

"Hello, SON. So you decided to wake up?" Vegeta says cheerfully, bouncing up from his position on the floor. The younger saiyajin watches him warily, still too worn to move. "Well, I'd say the ceremony went off successfully. Despite the fact that your soul looks like an elf." Goku's brow knits in confusion and he wonders whether his father's joking or not.

Vegeta decides to disappear for a while, leaving Goku to himself. He's glad for the solitude. He needs to sort out this jumbled mess inside himself before he can think of anything else, especially his father's bizarre behavior. What happened to him? He can't recall anything except for the fact that something inside of him sort of...shifted...

It's unsettling that he can't even remember if he was like this before. If these thoughts are even his own or if they belong to an entirely new person altogether. He feels a sense of regret welling up in him, like he lost something precious to him, but he doesn't know what he lost, or he did lose anything at all.

Before Goku's brain thinks itself into self-destruction, Vegeta comes back into sight again, holding a long object in his hands, wrapped in soft brown leather. He sits in front of his son, legs folded in under him, resting the object on his lap. Goku senses ceremony in this action and forces himself to copy his father's position, despite the jabbing pains in his body.

"Prince Goku," the elder ouji starts to say, staring his son right in the eye. Goku holds his head high, waiting for the next word, yet he can feel his heart pounding in his chest. Is this a test? Some part of the ceremony that he's not supposed to know about?

"It is customary for royalty to receive their full name after this ceremony, to truly acknowledge them as part of the royal family." Goku's face remains expressionless, not showing the painful relief he feels on the inside. Vegeta continues his narration, "I didn't think that it really mattered in this case, but recently I discovered that it was absolutely necessary.

"So I have come up with your royal name, a name that must never reach the ears of anyone outside the royal family and is only to be used in ceremony."

A pregnant pause..."Your new name is P-" Vegeta stops instantly, mouth still open as if he's choking on his very words.

Goku's eyes widen, "Dad, are you okay?"

The ouji shushes him with a hiss, "Let me speak." He starts again, slowly, fighting for every word. "Your name- your name is...Pri- P-P-" Vegeta struggles to say anything but those two words, but to his horror he realizes that he's fighting a losing battle. "Your name is...is..." He takes a deep breath and calms himself. "Your name is Prince Ximitar Goku- SHIT!!" He yells out his frustration, and feels utterly disgusted with himself for being so weak.

Goku gives his father an understanding smile, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I like it. Minus the Ximitar, it's the best name I've ever heard," he says humoring him a little.

The corner of Vegeta's mouth twists into a small smirk. Though he can't forgive himself for such a stupid thing, at least Prince Ximitar Goku can. "I have something for you," the elder ouji says quietly, holding up the long object.

Intrigued, Goku takes it from his hands, surprised by its heaviness. "This isn't really a custom, but I thought that you would- well..." Vegeta stops, not really sure what to say in this little practiced area.

The recipient stares at the package in confusion. "What is it?"

"It's a gift."

Goku's brow knits in confusion once more, "A gift? What the heck is a gift?"

Vegeta stares at him, blinking slowly. "Please be joking me."

Shaking his head, the younger ouji says, "No, I have no idea what it is."

"...Have I been that bad about them?" Vegeta mutters to himself. Wait...this really is the first gift that he's given Goku since they came to Mute Point. How about that. "A gift, Prince Goku, is something that you give to someone on a special occasion."

"What does that person have to do in return?" Goku asks in genuine curiosity.

Vegeta stares at him again wondering if he's for real or not. Exactly what kind of amnesia does the kid have?! "Nothing," he growls in mild annoyance, "that's the point."

Goku's eyes widen, "Whoa, really?!"

Vegeta sweatdrops, "Yes, really." He suddenly feels like he needs an aspirin.

After that healthy bit of information, Goku eagerly unstraps the leather wrapping to see his free 'gift'. A gasp of awe leaves his mouth as he gazes on the revealed object.

A staff. A beautiful mahogany staff. He can smell its varnish, heady and new, making it glow in the light of the rising sun. Scenes of great battles are carved into the head of the wood with such great craftsmanship that it looks to be the work of a true artisan.

Goku gapes at it, absolutely stunned. He's NEVER seen anything like it before. "It's- it's beautiful..."

A light smirk comes to Vegeta's lips, enjoying the reaction. "Happy Birthday, Prince Ximitar Goku."

****

A couple days later...

Vegeta grunts as he goes for his 2,150,589th push-up in a row, making absolutely sure to repeat the number repeatedly in his head. He already forgot which push-up he was on seven times already, and for seven times he had to restart it all over again. Dammit! He's never going to get his required 3 million daily done if he keeps losing track!

"2,150,590... 2,150,591... 2,150,592... 2,150-AIEE!!" He yelps loudly as something heavy pounces onto his back, making his elbows buckle at the shock of it.

"Hey Dad!" a cheerful voice rings out, accompanied by an upside down head. Vegeta glares spears and daggers at his son and bucks him off his back. Oh he is SO over that son thing. "What do you want?! Or are you interrupting my training just for the hell of it?!"

Goku grins and plops himself in front of the older saiyajin, still holding his new staff in his hands like a treasure. "Nah, I just wanted to tell you I'm going to go outside the forest. Okay?"

Vegeta grumbles, "Fine," before doing a doubletake. "WHAT?!"

Goku says in a reasonable tone, "Well I am a man now. And with my newly acquired manhood is the right to survey and acquire new territory. Well, I might not be able to do much acquiring as I don't have my royal insignia yet, but I can at least do the first part."

The ouji sits up giving himself a better position to glare at his son. "There's two things wrong with that. First, those 'rights' acquired at manhood are PRIVELEDGES which the man's father can take away any time he sees fit. Second, acquiring automatically comes WITH the surveillance. What you want to do is just exploring."

"Oh...So can I go then?"

"NO!" Vegeta yells so violently it nearly makes Goku jump out of his skin. "You don't get ANY of those privileges unless I say it's alright! Therefore, I give you only the privilege to train," he says with a certain smugness in his tone.

The young ouji narrows his eyes not liking this at all. "And if I choose not to exercise that privilege?" Goku asks crossly, folding his skinny arms over his chest.

"THEN I BUST YOUR HEAD OPEN!" the older ouji yells again, this time fury blazing in his eyes. Wide eyed, Goku literally falls back onto the mud- cracked earth at the sudden explosion and scrambles away to the forest as quickly as he can to escape his angry father. Vegeta sighs, watching his son disappear into the trees, before resuming his push-up position. "Now what number was I on? ......CRAP!!!"

****

Goku glares back at camp while he mutters incoherent curses to himself, not really watching where his feet are going. After the tree house is gone from sight between the branches of the high canopies of the jungle, he can barely hold himself up and lets himself fall onto the soft mossy earth.

His heart ties itself into knots at the injustice of his father's rule. He brings a hateful gaze to the mahogany staff, feeling all of his frustrations coming from it. "YOU FAKE!" he screams before slamming it down to the ground. It burrows into the mud at the inhuman speed it contacts the earth, going in two inches into the hard muddy floor. Tears come to Goku's eyes but he wipes them away quickly.

He thought that...He really thought that things would change after the ceremony. That somehow he'll be free to go where his spirit wanders, free to escape this prison of a jungle. He can feel it constrict on him, the trees. Everyday he spends in this place, it comes in on him and constricting his movement, his heart...

The thought that he'll spend the rest of his life in this place, it haunts him, turning his life into a living nightmare. And as the days pass it feels like some part of him is dying, wasting away in this tight, possessive...

He has to get out of here.

Screw his father.

Escape is all that matters.

Turning his back on the camp, Goku sets his sights in a straight line. If he just keeps to the line, he'll get out of here soon enough. And then he'll be free...

****

Finally done with his 3 million push-ups (although it was probably 13 million by the time he got through with them), Vegeta sits down on the mud- cracked earth to rest and to try to shake the numbness from his arms. With a resigned sigh, he thinks back on what conversation made him forget the numbers last time.

Dammit. He should really explain things to the boy. No, he corrects himself, the young man. His son's definitely going to take things the wrong way, he knows it. Even though Goku just had his Coming-of-Age ceremony, his head's STILL not screwed on right. He was stupid for thinking that visits from all of Goku's Ancients would turn Goku's head right.

Those human ideas of dissatisfaction and improvement are so ingrained into Goku's mind that he's still affected by them even with a completely saiyajin upbringing. Well, all right, so living in an isolated forest isn't exactly his idea of a real saiyajin upbringing, but at least his son isn't exposed to any ideas other than his own.

Then again, what is training and the quest for power all about? Self- improvement on all levels. "No wonder Prince Goku's confused," Vegeta mutters, annoyed, "I can't really explain it myself."

He gets up and tries to sense his son through their kin bond. His eyes widen immediately at the shocking weakness of it. There is something definitely wrong here. Even if they're on opposite ends of the forest, he should be able to sense Goku better than this. ESPECIALLY since their sense of ki is muted. By the Gods...he can't be...

His legs break into a run, following the tracks that Goku left a long time ago into the jungle. Oh Gods! How stupid he was just letting Goku run off after an argument like that! Obviously his son would try something stupid! Sure enough he soon finds his son's staff nearly buried in the muddy floor and he takes a quick second to pry it out of the ground, before running off again. {If he really is doing what I think he's doing...Then I'll beat him over the head with this very stick!!}

Yet as he runs, the path turns more and more familiar, one stored in a memory of long ago. Yet not that long, he thinks knowing there's something eerie about this path. Then it hits him like a bullet. Death Gorge! His son's heading right for Death Gorge!!

But WHY? Whatever possessed him to go to THAT place?! The tracks suddenly stop on the ground. Only one thing then. Vegeta scans the treetops. Broken branches scour the trees as Goku ran through them. It was sloppy, like Goku was speeding like his life depended on it.

The ouji jumps to the trees and follows the trail of minor destruction, hoping that somehow it goes off path away from the impending doom. Suddenly, a break in the trees. {Please, let him be here, please!} Vegeta prays as he flies to the edge of the trees.

He snaps his head around and spots his son on the edge of the gorge. "NO!" Vegeta screams just as his son falls over the edge. Without thinking he runs to the cliff edge and jumps in after, catching Goku by the hand before he falls in the gorge's endless shadow. Vegeta sighs a breath of relief and holds Goku against his chest, squeezing him as if he'll lose him if he loosens his grip just the slightest bit.

Suspended in the air, Vegeta takes a daring look down into the black chasm. Silence echoes off the stony red walls. Not even the howl of wind comes through the walls as if it is sucked into the darkness. Spiny chills crawl up Vegeta's spine, knowing this may not be the last time he has to save Goku from this evil place.

As quickly as he can he takes his son up to the top of the gorge and lays him down on the stony ground. "Prince Goku. Prince Goku, say something!" His son...he looks so pale and his eyes are glazed over as if he's in a trance.

"Daddy," Goku calls out, his voice nothing more than a dying last breath. "Daddy, something is calling me."

Vegeta's heart ties into knots as anxiety storms into it again. "No! Don't listen to it!" his voice full of desperation.

"Daddy, I can't see you."

His father's eyes widen in alarm. "Prince Goku, I'm right here!"

"No..."

Vegeta grabs his face roughly, forcing the young saiyajin to face him. "Prince Ximitar Goku! Look at me!" The young man shakes his head, though his dull eyes stare right at him. "I said look at me!" Vegeta yells, shaking Goku's head again. "Do you know what's happening?"

Goku's face screws into tears as he tries to fight off the invading darkness. "No! I can't, it's all dark! I was so mad at you! I'm sorry! I want to- to hurt you so badly!" His voice cracks as he struggles for the words. "I threw the gift away. I wanted to get away from you! Then it all went dark." He pauses his narration and his blind eyes widen in panic. "Something's calling me! I can hear it!"

Vegeta gives his son a squeeze. "Calm down. I won't let anything happen to you. We just need to get away from this place. You'll be alright. Now, I'm going to pick you up." He picks up Goku from the ground and hops up to the treetops in the direction from which he came. He gets a hold of the mahogany staff and places it in Goku's hands. "I'm taking you away from here. Never come to Death Gorge again. And never try to go outside the forest."

The young saiyajin nods, his fist clutching the staff like it's his own precious brother. "I'll never- I won't go outside. Never-no, I won't." As Vegeta takes them further away from the evil gorge, he can feel his senses coming back to him, blurred wisps of images breaking through the darkness clutching his eyes, and relief washes over him as the mysterious voice calling his name fades away. A small smile comes to his face and he closes his eyes to rest. "I love you, Daddy."

Vegeta nearly trips at the sudden declaration. "Wha-what?! What the hell made you decide to say that?!"

"I'm sorry," Goku says in mild confusion. If this isn't the best time to say it then what is?

"Didn't I tell you to stop apologizing?" the ouji asks, still a little flustered from the loose use of the 'L' word.

"So-Yes."

"Better."

****

A/N: ...That chapter was mush, too... Ah well, when you're packing years into one chapter it's bound to happen.