Alternate Timeline

Book one: The Saga Begins

Chapter 5: Tyrant and Savior

Raditz stood just outside the door. It was one of those moments where time seemed to stand still as we both stupidly stared at each other.

"What are you doing here?" he finally asked, breaking the silence.

Following voices in my head didn't seem like the best excuse to give but I couldn't think of anything better. "Why is that any of your business?"

"Well, it's not but I thought I'd..." his voice trailed as he looked down. Then his eyes quickly snapped back up to me. "What are you doing with my little brother?"

I looked down at Goku and back up at Raditz. "Your...brother?"

"Yeah, my brother! The one you've got there in your hands! You can't just take him away, who gave you permission to do so?" He held out his hands and gently picked Goku from my arms. "C'mere Kakarot, big brother Raditz will protect you from the insane lady..."

"You should learn to shut your mouth before I work up the nerve to kick you in the balls," I said to him as he began to make faces at the giggling little Saiyan in his hands.

'Yay! It's the Klutz!' Goku's mind called to me. 'The one that falls over!'

"See?" Raditz said triumphantly. "Kakarot knows who his brother is!" I nearly fell over laughing. Sure Raditz, he knows who you are alright. "Yeah, you tell her who I am! I'm Big Brother Raditz! And you're Baby Brother Kakarot! That's right! You and I are related! We're brothers Kakarot, forever and always!"

'That's the sound there,' Goku said throwing a glance at me. 'Kaakaa...root...that sound. That's what everyone says...'

"Raditz, I don't think he likes to be called Kakarot."

The Saiyan boy turned to me. "Shut up! He loves being called Kakarot! That's his name, isn't it?"

"Just because it's his name doesn't mean that he likes it! It's an ugly name too! Who gave him such a crappy name?"

"OUR MOTHER NAMED HIM!"

Goku began to cry. Raditz stopped his fight with me and turned his undivided attention to his younger sibling, rocking him and soothing him his fussing. For a moment, I couldn't believe this was the same Raditz I had met yesterday. The one I had met was a jerk and an idiot. This one was responsible and caring; he was worried for his brother and looking out for him.

"Our mother," Raditz stated more calmly when Goku settled. He didn't look up but I could see the gloss over his eyes. "She died shortly after giving birth to him. They couldn't revive her. Her last words were...and I quote, 'Raditz...Kakarot...I want you two to look out for each other. Be there for one another. Care, like brothers should.' Now, I'm the only one who cares about what happens to him. I come and visit him here, every day that I can."

"What about your father?"

Raditz leaned against a wall and slid himself to the ground. "We don't share a common father, just a mother. I don't know what happened to my father, I was too young to notice or really care. His father just flat out abandoned him. He won't take a second glance at me either. He doesn't care. I'm the only one Kakarot's got left. I'm the only one who will take care of him or look out for him."

I knelt beside Raditz, leaning my head down toward his face so I could look into his downcast eyes. "I care about him too." I said. "I didn't want him staying locked up under that glass case."

"Neither do I," Raditz said. "It's been my plan to find a place for us to live together as soon as I become of age in a couple of years. Until then, I'm still just a kid and I can't take care of another person, so everyone else says."

"Let me help then," I say. "Prince Vegeta won't turn me down, he can stay with me and we can raise him together."

Raditz remained silent for a while, stroking Goku's hair. "I think I'd like that," he said quietly. He cuddled his brother a little longer before getting up and looking at the sun. "We should probably get back to the palace. Vegeta will be awake soon. He'll probably want to see you."

It was just unbelievable how dramatic the change was in Raditz. He was so kind, so full of love and concern for his sibling. He held Goku so gently, walked so carefully. He...he tripped and fell right on his face.

"You Idiot! Where's Goku?" I screamed as I pulled him up. I expected the baby to be hurt, crying maybe even fatally injured where Raditz's body had been, but I found nothing. When I looked back at Raditz, he held a laughing Goku in his arms. His face as splotchy red with some blood creeping out of one corner of his mouth, but Goku was unharmed and seemed to be loving the fact that his brother couldn't walk a straight line without losing track of where his feet where.

"Well, I think I'll make a great parent! What do you think?"

"I think you'd make a great entertainer for children; that doesn't make you a parent. Now, give Goku to me before you hurt him with one of your klutz attacks."

"Goku? Is that what you've been calling him?"

I took Goku in my hands and nodded at Raditz. "Yep. He happens to like that name, by the way."

"He does not!"

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Prove it."

Raditz stepped in front of me and stooped down to Goku's eye level. "Kakarot," he said to his sibling. "I like that name Kakarot, do you like that name? It's a pretty name..."

'What's he doing?' Goku asked as he tilted his head to look up at me. 'Can't you tell him I don't like being called that?'

'I'm trying,' I replied. I placed my hand over Raditz's face and pushed him away from Goku's face as the poor baby started scrunching up his cute little angel face. "You're scaring him! Cut it out!"

Raditz fell backwards on his rump and Goku began to giggle. "Ah-HA! There! You see? He likes the name Kakarot! I win!"

"He likes to see you hurt yourself, not being called Kakarot," I reply. I stepped over him and began walking back towards the palace.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I'll bet you dinner that when he learns to talk, he'll tell us he likes the name Kakarot better then the name Goku."

"You're on." He held out his hand and with my free one we shook on it.

"My, it's early for you children to be outside. What were you two doing?"

Both of us jumped from the voice and spun around to see who it was. I was surprised to see it wasn't a Saiyan that had snuck up on us.

His body was short, only about two feet taller then me. Down his cheeks, arms and legs was pink striped skin and wherever else it was either purple, white or a pale, pale rose color. Out from his head sprouted two large pointed horns that where as black as his dark lips. But the thing that seemed to stand out against him and all that surrounded him, was his eyes. I'd never forget them.

They were a blood-ruby red color and seemed to burn into your soul. They were as hot as fire, yet they were set in such a cold glare that even ice would be like a sauna in comparison.

"Lord Frieza!" said Raditz, falling to his knees and bowing his head. Frieza glanced at him and smiled, then turned to me and gave a look that clearly said he wanted me to do something. I could only guess that it was to bow before him, but...something told me not to and I decided to follow that voice. I shifted Goku's weight to my other side, away from Frieza so as to shield the baby from his stare, and stared back.

"Who are you?" I asked, deciding now would be a good time to play the part of a naïve and innocent little girl.

"That was going to be my next question after you answered my first," he replied.

"Lord Frieza, please," said Raditz lifting his head. "Allow me to explain; She's been gon-"

"Hush," Frieza said. "She has a mouth, a voice to speak with. Let her explain."

'She's going to die!' I heard the though from Raditz's mind, and it shook me a little. Looking down at him, you would've never thought he was panicking on the inside. 'Say you've been gone on a very long mission, very, very, very far away!'

"Well, this is the first time I've been home in a long while," I say. "I've been gone, working."

"Really? You don't look it. What planet were you on?"

"Ba-Bar-Ru," I state impulsively. "I was working as a slave for their king. My crew included my father, he was taking me out with him just to poke some fun with a couple of Ba-Bear-Rureians. He didn't think they'd get very rough, nor did he think they'd be dirty enough to take me hostage. They killed him and kept me as a slave."

"I see. Tell me, how did you get here? Has the king come and brought you with him?"

"No, I escaped. I waited until the right time, late at night when no one was really paying attention. Snuck out and flew off in one of their ships. Here I am now. "

Frieza stepped up to me and lifted my face to examine it closer. "You're...not like other Saiyans I've seen. Who was your father?"

I pulled away from his hold. "I'm not comfortable with you being that close," I said. "Back off."

"You certainly don't act like you were a slave. But then...Saiayns don't make good slaves, or so I'm told from those that have tried. Isn't that right, little Saiyan?" He nodded his head at Raditz and gave me one last look before stepping past us and walking on his way.

"You're amazing," Raditz said looking up at me with admiration once Frieza was gone. "Where'd all that come from?"

"Get up," I said to Raditz and continued to walk back to the palace.

"That was beautiful Tyme, until you revolted. Do you know what you just did?" Raditz asked as he caught up to me, his voice full of sarcasm.

"No. What did I do? Piss off some dude I don't know and don't care for?"

"You pissed off Frieza! That's who you pissed off! What were you thinking!"

"I was thinking he was a monkey butt, that's what I was thinking."

"You're insane," Raditz said as we stepped through the palace doors. The guards did a double-take at me, but didn't say anything; just looked at each other dumbfounded.

"So what makes Frieza so terrible?" I asked when we'd reached my dorm a while later. I entered and set Goku on the bed where he began to look around and take in all of his new surroundings.

'It's so big...'

"Frieza is...powerful, there's no other word for it. And you just don't piss him off Tyme! Especially with my brother in your arms!"

"Well, what's he doing here?" I ask as I began looking for something to dress Goku with. I finally decided a pillow case would be the only thing that would fit him and so striped one of the silk white cases off one of the five pillows I now had.

"We work for him, purging planets to sell to other races for living space, or for stations for his universal empire. Him and the King are always talking."

Finding the seam in the pillow, I broke the thread and began pulling it apart "Purging?" I looked at Raditz questioning this meaning.

"Killing off the inhabitants," he stated simply.

"WHAT!"

"You act surprised."

"You're killing people!"

"Only the races who refuse to join in alliance with Frieza, like us Saiyans are. We work for him and he protects us from harm."

"Harm! Like someone seeking revenge on you for killing their family!"

Raditz shrugged. "Anyone who wants to go to war with us."

"And who, besides the obvious choices, would want to go to war with the Saiyan race?"

"Uh...let's see...The Ba-Bear-Rureians that you mentioned for one!" Raditz said sarcastically. "They are a pure evil race who just want to see things destroyed. And by the way, that story you told of them was good, but I think Frieza had a hard time buying it. They usually don't take slaves of other races. They just kill you off!"

"And what do you do when you purge?"

"You think I want to kill those people?"

I stared at him for a bit, the two pieces of clothe forgotten in my lap and covered by my hands. That last sentence seemed to echo for a minute in my mind as I thought of something to say back. Slowly, my lips muttered, "then how can you do it?"

His eyes became glazed though not with sadness, the presence of tears; they just glazed over with a kind of shield, like a barrier to protect the soul within from emotional and mental harm. They seemed empty really, as thought the soul had left the body temporarily, like the onyx eyes had temporarily lost their ability to reflect light back into the world. They just became a black void, sucking but never being filled.

"You don't think..." he whispered, "you just...do..."

I decided then that I didn't like Frieza. What he wanted of my friends was taking away their essence, their very being. And I could tell, from when I looked into his eyes, that he knew of this and didn't care. He may have even enjoyed it and thats what really pissed me off.

Raditz blinked and his shield dropped; his eyes returned to normal. My gaze followed him as he made his way to Goku and crawled into the bed beside him. He pulled his sibling into his lap and began to entertain Goku by making silly faces at him and allowing the baby to tug on the hair that dropped over his shoulder.

"So you're just going to take it, and not do anything to change your situation?"

"If we were strong enough," Raditz said, "we might. But that's how strong Frieza is. At first, some of us were reluctant to join Frieza's ranks. They formed a revolt when the king signed the agreement, wouldn't work. Frieza...he killed them all. Made a 'Public Example' of them so we all knew what would happen if we challenged him. No one dares challenge him now. A few Elites and my fellow First Classes will act out every now and again, but nothing to seriously piss him off. Never to his face.

"There's one hope for us," Raditz said as he lifted his head to look at me, eyes shining. "One thing that gives us hope and keeps us pushing forward. The thought that one day, very soon, Frieza will be over-thrown by the Super Saiyan!"

"Super...Saiyan?"

"The most powerful fighter in the entire universe! Once every three thousand years years a warrior of great strength arises from the Saiyans, stronger then all the rest. And this time, everyone knows it's Vegeta. He's just a little boy and look! He surpasses even his own father in power!"

"What does a Super Saiyan look like?" I ask.

Raditz shrugged. "No on really knows. Three thousand years? I doubt you're going to find a Saiyan that old. But legends say that he glows like the sun in his greatest and he can't fully control his power."

Can control his power...this was suppose to be a savior? Maybe I wasn't the one who was insane. But then something hit me: What if I was this legendary warrior? It happened only once before, mainly because since then I've monitored myself heavily, but the fact stands that it still happened...

I was training, like I normally did on nights when sleep never came. It was shortly after my mother's death; the nightmares had gotten worse without her. Because they disrupted my sleep, I was usually very irritable to begin with. That day was no different.

The training wasn't giving the results that I wanted, which was really start to piss me off. I was angry at my mother for dying, she could've helped me if she hadn't, angry at myself for being flawed and for letting her die to begin with. 'I could've gotten her help when I knew that she needed it,' I told myself. I knew I could've saved her if I'd just go to get help, found another Saiyan, someone to help take care of her. Of course, doing so would require me to disobey her, and I became mad at myself for being so obedient and not thinking for myself. I felt like nothing I ever did would be right. The more angry I was the restless I became. I tried sparring with myself, but I just felt that I was even doing this wrong.

Something snapped.

I couldn't move, I was barely aware of my own voice screaming. All I could really focus in on was the pain that convulsed through every nerve in my body. There was a struggle inside myself, I was fighting someone else for the right to have my body almost. Only, between us was this wall that up until that point had been unbreakable. Now it was crumbling beneath the other's unbelievable power and there was hardly a thing I could do to stop them.

In a flash of light, golden-yellow light that was brighter then the sun's, they arrived and took control. The pain stopped. I fell into darkness. I don't remember anything but lying in a black void and wondering if I really existed after that.

By the time I did come around I honestly don't know how much time had pasted. The sun was about to set, so at the very least I had been on a power bing for at least a little under 24 hours.

All the woods around me had been totaled. It was a large crater of devastation. I was lying dead center in it and I had to conclude that this had been caused by my lack of control.

So did that make me the legendary Super Saiyan?

"Is the Super Saiyan always a boy?" I asked, dreading the answer. If it was yes, then maybe I didn't have to worry. If no, then I was most probably some chosen hero freak. Either way, I don't think this would be something that everyone needed to know about just yet.

Raditz burst out laughing. His armband slid a little ways down his forearm and he pushed it back up when he settled to giggles. "Of course the Super Saiyan will be male," he said simply. "Did you honestly think females are good for anything more then reproduction?"

I was then reminded of who I was really talking to and that Raditz was an asshole. In a flash, I had picked him up and hurtled him all the way across the room.

"Of course, some females would make wonderful teachers for our younger, less battle experienced males!" he said just as I lifted him up into the air and was preparing another strike.

"I don't need to teach you to fight better," I said. I dropped him deciding he wasn't worth the energy. "You just need to learn to keep your mouth shut at the right time, like you did before Frieza."

Raditz gave me an odd look as I returned to comfort a crying Goku. As soon as I had calmed him down, I turned back to making his outfit. I ripped two length wise strips form one of the sheets and a hole in the other.

"What are you doing?" asked Raditz as he looked up at me.

I slipped the silk sheet with a hole in it over Goku's head and used one of the strips like a sash around his waist. "Dressing the baby," I said in a sing-song kind of voice. "Yeah, cuz the baby needs to be dressed, huh? The baby needs to be dressed." I folded the other sheet several times until it was in a triangle, laid Goku's rump on it and wrapped it around him like a diaper, using the other sash to hold that in place as well. "There!" I said when done, sitting him up for Raditz to see. "Isn't he just the cutest thing you ever saw?"

But Raditz didn't have time to answer as there came a single knock on the door before they swished open for Nappa to enter. "Tyme, Prince Vegeta has sent for you. He wishes to see you down the the training room as soon as possible. Get yourself ready and I'll lead you there."

"Hello Nappa. I've been just fine, thank you for asking," said Raditz. "And how have you been? The wife and kids?"

"That's very funny Raditz," Nappa shot at the boy. "Real cute. C'mon, we don't have all day. The prince said now, and he meant it."

I got to my feet, cradling Goku in my arms. "Let's go then."

"But-" Nappa started then seemed a little lost at to what to say.

"But what? If we're in a hurry and Prince Vegeta is waiting on us, I think the best thing we can do is move out, hmm?"

"Well, you're not dressed."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I looked down at my leather hide outfit. "I am dressed."

"So you're just going to go down and meet the prince looking like...that."

"If you are expecting me to put on the ridiculous clothing you're wearing, you, my friend, are sadly mistaken. Now, lead the way to wherever it is that we're going because I certainly don't know where Vegeta is."

With a shake of his head and a sigh, Nappa headed out of my dorm followed closely by Raditz and myself.

"Our clothing isn't really that funny looking," Raditz whispered to me. "Is it?"

"You look like idiots with those shoulder pads," I whispered back. "And the clothe is stretched so tight over your body, I can see all your details." Raditz's face flushed a bright red.

Nappa stopped at a door and opened it. He waved his had toward the entrance and bowed a little to say "ladies first," then followed in after me and Raditz. Vegeta was sitting on a bench in the middle of the room wiping off his face with a towel. When he saw me out of the corner of his eye, he smiled just quick enough for only me to see before putting on his mask again. Standing up he made his way over to me and declared, "we need to test you!"

"Test me," I blurted out. "For what!"

"Your powerlevel," Vegeta replied. "We need to know what class of fighter you are."

"But I'm-" I stuttered. "I'm not a fighter. I've had some simple training, but I've never fought with anyone. You can't be serious..." I handed Goku to Raditz as Vegeta tugged on my free hand to get me to follow him.

"You'll do fine, I promise I won't let them make it too hard for you," Vegeta said. "If you want, I'll even let you spar with me while they grade you!"

"That'll make her look too weak Vegeta," Nappa said. "She'll be classified as a third class if matched up against you. It won't be fair." The prince stuck out his tongue at Nappa.

"Really Vegeta," I whispered into the prince's ear when we were far enough away from anyone else, and that included two other beings who weren't Saiyans. "Don't make me do this, fight full force. I don't want too."

"Why not?" he whispered back. "It will be fun! You will like it!"

"No, I won't. Just please, don't let this happen?"

"You will at least spar with me then? Like you and I did in the woods? Is that okay?"

I didn't want to let him see me, if I was this Super Saiyan thing. Not until I knew for sure, not until I was in total control and there was no danger of me attacking him. Hurting him. Killing him. I had to protect him from myself. But there was no threat of me hurting him if we were just playing, right?

I looked around at the others standing by, watching us. At the room we were in, which didn't seem like a good place to spar. Vegeta turned to the side and waved at the two non-Saiyans who were sitting at a control panel of some sort. One of them pushed a few buttons and a door opened up before us. Vegeta stepped inside and tugged at my hand to try and coax me in with him.

Trusting in those dark onyx eyes that promised me nothing bad would happen, I stepped cautiously into the drill room and left the others behind on the other side.

End Chapter 5!