Chapter 20

Legends

Goku was taken aback at the coldness of these people as they warned him of Vegeta and what he was wanted for. Kakarrot stood there in disbelief. "A beast? Why would you call another being a beast? I don't understand, I'm rather new here."

The hunter raised a brow, looking to the Saiyan's throat, seeing no collar nor marking that signified the one before him had ever been a slave, much like the Saiyan they were hunting was before coming here. "He's a slave here in Jronia, wears a black steel shock collar, and is branded on the left forearm with the number 3607. If you see him again, don't let him out of your sight until we can catch that no good piece of filth. The creature is to be considered dangerous and still partly wild. We've been trying to break that slave now for about nine years."

Goku nodded but didn't say a word, not promising anything as he began to grasp how things worked here. He couldn't understand the reasons behind their accusations, except for the dangerous side of the Saiyan they hunted, his throat was still sore from it. His eyes looked up at the hunters and then stood aside and they rushed past. When all was silent again, he whispered to the forest around him. "A slave? Wounded, hunted, and treated like an animal, no wonder his temper was flared when he came across me. He's been fighting hard and long."

Gazing at the apple in his hand, he looked in the direction Vegeta had disappeared and then closed his eyes and flickered before him, causing the Saiyan Prince to stagger back from the stream by which he was tending to the wound. The look of surprise and a bit of fear was unmistakeable in the Prince's eyes, but he also noticed how quickly it changed. Goku held out the apple in his hand and Vegeta eyed him warily. "The hunters don't know where you are Vegeta. I didn't tell them anything, but I see now why you ran from them."

Vegeta scoffed. "Don't give me any pity Kakarrot. I never asked for it and I don't want it, I'm doing fine on my own."

Goku shook his head. "You look thin though..."

Before Kakarrot could finish what he was saying Vegeta had turned his back and begun digging up a few types of roots and some berries off a nearby bush, grazing from them lightly as he picked them. He washed off the root thoroughly and then began to walk back toward an outcropping of rock. His demeanor though didn't change, he was still very leary around Goku. "I hadn't eaten for a few days. So what, I'll live. What the hell do you want anyway? Can't seem to get away from you for nothing."

Goku found a stump and sat upon it as Vegeta lit a small smokeless fire and then carved out a dish from a piece of wood with a sharp stone. Watching the Saiyan Prince was like watching an educational show without the narration as he showed and displayed a way to survive out in the wild with nothing to start from. When he was done, he scooped some water in the makeshift bowl and then put the roots in it and placed it in the fire until it would boil. Goku looked at him and then curiosity once more took the Saiyan again. "Do you really have the number 3607 branded upon your left arm?"

Vegeta looked at him and then his gaze fell to the fire before him. His coal eyes reflected the raging flames flickering before them. They danced in his penetrating stare as he pulled down the left glove and revealed the four numbers mentioned on the underside of the forearm. He hated that marking with a burning passion, hotter than the fire that burned before them. Goku seen it and looked up to the black collar about Vegeta's throat, knowing that Vegeta would not have let it rest upon his throat if he had been given the choice. "You were forced to slavery? Why do you let yourself be controlled?"

Quickly snapping his head back to look at Goku he growled. "What do you know of my fights? Nothing! You think I like to be controlled? Why the hell do you think I escaped!"

He quietly turned snapping up a stone dish and then quietly he began picking even more berries as he thought of his wife back at the cave. He had left her behind and shielded from sight by the boulder covering the entrance. The Saiyan Prince could only hope the hunters didn't find her yet and that she would be safe for the time being. Glaring up at Kakarrot, he turned, pulling the boiled roots off the fire, and then began to head back for the lair.

Goku quietly watched him for a moment, thinking about how the Vegeta on Earth had always shut out others as well. This time though, he was seeing something far greater taking place than just ego or bruised pride, it was all a matter of survival, pure and simple. The younger Saiyan followed Vegeta quietly, as if watching to see what he was doing and where he was going. However half way to the cave, Vegeta had stopped and was looking back at him.

With a bit of a disgusted look he gazed at Kakarrot. "Why do you follow me? You nearly got me caught by hunters before."

Goku backed down a bit letting Vegeta have his place and respect. "I'm just eager to know what you are hiding and where, that's all. I don't mean any harm to come to you."

The Dark Prince only scoffed again. "Yeah right. More like follow me so you can tip them off. Just leave me the hell alone!"

Kakarrot shook his head and remained behind as Vegeta turned and walked off again as he gazed after the Saiyan Prince. In the distance, Goku could hear the hunters closing in again as he raced to warn Vegeta, but he found the Saiyan Prince already fighting off and killing many of the hunters, though his side and shoulder had been shot through with arrows. Goku could only watch right now as the hunters tried to take down Vegeta like a wounded animal. Nets were thrown and yet he managed to avoid them.

Shouting and hollaring, these men had completely surrounded Vegeta, cornering him as a dart was fired in his direction. Vegeta would feel the thud and the sharp prick as he immediately took to the trees and was quickly out of sight. However, his disappearance didn't seem to faze the hunters in the least. "He couldn't have gone far, the beast has been tranqed!"

Kakarrot looked at the hunters as they passed by and then to the scattered bodies lying broken and dead on the ground before him. He looked to the direction Vegeta had taken off in and then shook his head realizing just how much like an animal the Saiyan Prince had been treated as. Vegeta had circled back though and now looked at Goku foundering around a bit. His eyes heavy, he curled in the tree and then finally let the tranq force him to sleep.

When Vegeta woke however, he would find himself in a net, bound up and muzzled. A headache would spread as the hunters celebrated their capture and all the while Kakarrot had remained in the background watching how they had pulled him from the tree and took little care of the wounds he had already suffered from them. Kakarrot was disgusted by the way they treated Vegeta like a game to hunt down and when captured, they acted as if he were a prize trophy that had been found by accident and worth a lot of money.

If one looked closer however, they would have seen that he was well on his way to freeing himself as he subtly worked. Goku caught sight of this but said nothing watching between when he worked and the others laughing with their backs turned to Vegeta. Silently the Dark Prince worked at the bindings holding him and without sound he managed to not only get out of his bindings but take off as well. Though wounded, Vegeta made quick progress as he navigated the forest paths with just the moonlight showing the way. Kakarrot though would keep his distance but he followed Vegeta back to the cave and there struggle to pull a boulder away and then finally rolled it aside.

He gazed around the cave finding his wife there as she laid on the ground, illness having settled in and Vegeta lowered his head a bit. He had lost the needed roots and berries to aid the healing process. Goku though held the boiled roots in his hand and taking a deep breath he neared the cave and quietly peered in. "Vegeta? You dropped the roots and berries. I was able to salvage the roots but the berries are lost I'm afraid."

Coal eyes looked at Goku with a gaze that spoke more than any words could say, one of accepting a fate but hating to. One of refusing a fate that seemed to follow him as the hunters tried to locate him to take him back to Jerone. He stood there silently having no other place to go other than where he was right now. He said nothing at all as he took the roots from Kakarrot, then turned back and began to crush and grind it to get the liquid out of it. The root made a paste with it and he quietly began to tend to Blue.

Vegeta knew that this day was when the shot would wear off but as Kakarrot stood there, the both of them could hear the hunters in an angry prowl through the forest. There would be no escape this night for Vegeta nor Blue. Kakarrot tried to fend them off, but there was too many to fight away and a tranq had found Goku and a cold band was snapped around his neck. When the hunters were sure that Goku would no longer interfere with the capture of the Saiyan Prince and the female, they released it after shocking Vegeta into a point of exhaustion.

After binding and muzzling him with chains, they drug him to a tree and clipped a chain to the collar and then tied him to one tree. Another took a choke chain and looped it around Vegeta's throat as well and pulled it tight. Monock pulled at him and then as the chain cinched tighter around his throat, Vegeta began to fight and hard. Monock yanked it causing the new collar to choke him harshly. The Saiyan Prince, already wounded from previous fights with them found his strength giving way as he sank to his knees and shook his head.

Blue was sick with a fever and several wounds, she would be of no help to escape. They looked her over and then sneered. "That female isn't going to make it, leave her and take this beast to the mansion. Jerone will be glad that his slave is caught alive and with plenty of energy to still work through tomorrow."

Vegeta only struggled for breath as the cinch on the choke chain around his throat was only tightened more then tied off around another tree by a length of chain. That night they laughed and tormented Vegeta with taunts, mud flung up to his face, one even putting feces into his hair and on his face. Goku though could see the indignations they were placing upon the Saiyan before him. A few got up and forced alcohol down his throat gained with a few kicks, a few lashings, a sound beating with a club, and finally they let him be as they tucked into their mats and blankets.

After they had drifted to sleep, he used his shoulder to wipe away as much of the filth that he could. Finally, he too tried to rest with his legs tucked up under him. He was tired, sore, and his pride had been severely wounded. The rage of it alone was enough to cause him to tremble as Goku stood back to observe how these people were and also seen that Vegeta had his temper not to be arrogant nor ignorant, but to survive. It was vital that the Saiyan Prince did not show any sort of being broken but in times of what would soon come, it was hard to not feel the degradations that was placed upon him.

That night though a new legend was about to be born out of the rage, humiliation, and a tormented spirit that was unmatched in every way. As Vegeta sat there in the silence of the night bound and muzzled, he felt something inside of him finally snap. The leather muzzle that held his mouth shut broke. Goku had yet to reach this state as he felt a power surround the area unlike any he had ever felt before. The very ground trembled under this increase and Kakarrot's eyes snapped up to Vegeta.

The hunters roused as the chains burst off of him and Vegeta stood up slowly. His eyes flashed green as the men, including Monock jumped away quickly the fear in their eyes but Goku watched. He had heard of the Super Saiyan legend but something told Goku this was going to be far more than just the coming of a rumor, it was the dawning of a Legend and he was standing witness to it as it played right before his eyes.