--- The Phoenix Chronicles ---

Chapter 20 - Family Reunion

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As the Icebreaker draws ever closer to the nearby system from whence the strange message originated, there's a certain something in the air. No one knows exactly what the upcoming meeting will entail, but no one doubts it will be something to remember; a reunion of Saiyans usually is. Even the control room is a buzz, as Kat, obviously having picked up on the enthusiasm of her 'brother' and 'sister', is having obvious difficulties remaining seated at her console.

The nearby Flute remained as calm as ever, but Frost and Avery, despite looking as calm as normal on the outside, inside are both worried about having more Saiyans around will do to their health, and the general wellbeing of the ship. Trying to remain calm, Frost announced over the ships intercom, "Planetfall in ten minutes."

At that moment, Kaen was currently doing a light workout in the training room, in an effort to burn off excess energy; nothing too strenuous, but enough. Pi, however, was content enough to just watch, and despite 'nothing too strenuous' roughly translating into 200g's, she noticed little of it; it was a mere 20 times the gravity back home, and the pair of them trained in over double this on a regular basis.

Without so much as slowing down, he mused aloud, "Not too much longer now... I wonder why they're off world... Ah well, I guess we'll find out soon enough." He finished with a grin.

Not too much later, the ship began to make a faint rumble, indicating it had entered the planet's atmosphere. Noticing this, although it would be hard not too, he stopped his workout, turning to his mate and saying, "Shall we?" She grinned back at him and nodded once, so, shutting down the gravity, he quickly towelled off and extended his arm, giving her a mock-bow with a grin still on his face. She just laughed a bit, which was the point all along, and accepted his arm, and the two walked off to the hangar together.

o-o-o

As per usual, everyone was assembled in the docking bay, but before the doors opened, Frost had a quick few things to say. "This area is a jungle. We found this clearing, and the location of the transmission is a short trek away. However, this planet's inhabitants are extremely violent, and xenophobic to boot, the kind to forget about questions and come out swinging, so keep an eye out."

The Saiyan couple just looked at each other and grinned broadly; looks like this trip would be even more fun than first thought. Even young Kat looked eager for a fight; outside of training, she so rarely got to take part in combat. The doors opened into a short clearing and dense jungle, and, wasting no time, Kaen dove out, stretching his senses out in search of any threats. What he found, however, was a little unsettling; the entire forest seemed alive.

The rest of the group was out shortly after, and, taking the lead, Frost called, "North of here, let's move. I don't want to be a sitting target."

The Saiyans kept pace with Frost in front, Kat in their shadow, and the Namek's an amiable pace in behind them, and in front of Avery, who was, as per usual, bringing up the rear. They walked in silence for a while, one of them watching around for danger every now and then, when suddenly a shrill, violent cry shattered the quiet, as seven of the local primitives dove out of the bushes and attacked the party.

Pi, the first to react, swung at one with a hard left hook, catching her attacker squarely in the stomach, and sending him flying back into the undergrowth whence he came, before continuing the motion and throwing a kick at a second, making contact with a sickening crunch that caused it to collapse in a heap.

In a rather unorthodox tactic, Kat jumped and spun in mid air, kicking like a mule, and catching one of their assailants in the face as it charged towards her, causing it, through sheer momentum, to go flying under her doing a loop-the-loop, and ending up sprawled face down in the grass.

Frost levelled his hand at a fourth, firing off a couple of basic, blue-white blasts, and reducing it to a smoking corpse.

Both Viola and Flute had the same idea, using a special ability of their Namekian biology, and extending their arms to attack their foes from afar, but whereas Viola merely manages to knock her target out cold, Flute's attack is far more effective, as the sound of snapping ribs can attest to.

Finally, Kaen simply swings his arm into a clothesline, catching the remaining enemy hard in the throat, and, with a choking sound, it falls to the ground hard, and doesn't get back up.

Dusting his hands, Kaen turns to Frost and states, "That takes care of that."

Flute peered around curiously, commenting, "Interesting. They were able to catch us totally off guard. I didn't even sense them."

Nodding to Flute, Frost added, "My scouter shows power levels no matter where I look. No wonder this planet hasn't been taken already; it's impossible to get an exact threat reading."

Nodding as well, Kaen had his two cents, "The entire forest seems alive. It's almost impossible to distinguish one ki signature from the rest, even for us 'aliens'; the power everywhere seems to drown everything else out."

As if on cue, another attacker leaps from the undergrowth, pouncing straight at the unaware Pi, but before he's even halfway he's met by an errant ki blast from the jungle behind it, reducing it to ash. Pi blinked in surprise, and Kaen spun around to face the direction the blast came from, the others joining soon after, finding something slightly unexpected.

A somewhat gruff voice could be heard, "Damn things are like cockroaches; they run if they see a light, and they come out everywhere." The voice belonged to a slightly taller than average Saiyan, with shortish hair that would've reached his neck had it not stood out almost horizontally from the back of his head, and as he stopped short near the party, his cold blue eyes, deep enough to match any ocean, swept across the group, coming to rest on Pi as he said, "Well, well, well, now I was wondering where you were off too these days missy, after just up and disappearing like that; your parents too."

Kaen grinned, reflexively commenting, "She's in good hands, I assure you," but everyone, himself included, was a little shocked when Pi grinned broadly and hugged the strange Saiyan; there was something about him Kaen felt he should remember, but, thanks to his head injury a long while ago, had no such luck. A curious look on his face, Kaen asked, "Who are you exactly? I have this feeling I should remember you..." Pi's hug showed the man was obviously a relative; after all, like most Saiyans, he was fairly secure in his relationship, knowing that, even were the man not too old, he knew the guy wouldn't have been some secondary partner.

Before the man had a chance to answer Pi did it for him, seemingly paying no attention to anyone else, as she pulled back and exclaimed, "What are you doing here Uncle Truniz?"

The Saiyan, Truniz, laughed, "Uncle? Now that kind of talk is gonna make me feel old! Kinda the reason I'm here actually; nothing like a little genocide to make you feel young again!" He regarded Kaen for a moment, grinning and looking back at Pi, adding, "Looks like you found your runt alive and well after all."

Kaen started growling despite himself at the 'runt' remark. Try as he might to stop it, he was a little sensitive about his height; coming up just short of six foot, sans hair (which added another 8 inches or so) would do that to anyone.

"Look like he's still got his old temper too!" Another voice called out, as the speaker followed the first from the undergrowth. This Saiyan was taller again than Truniz, with similar eyes, and even similar hair, although his hung down to his shoulders, apart from the single tuft that shot down from his fringe.

Giggling happily, Pi cried out, "Dad! It's so good to see you again!" as she moved to hug the newcomer, who joined her in laughter as he hugged her back.

Now this man Kaen remembered clearly from back on Vegeta-Sei, his name was Kellre; regardless of any memory-damaging injuries, it was nigh-on impossible for any guy to forget his girlfriend's father, the man he'd one day call his 'father-in-law'. Grinning, Kaen replied, "You expected that to change as I got older?"

Kellre just smirked back, "Not really, no, but you'd be surprised at what having a mate can do to you."

Still grinning, Kaen shrugged, replying, "True, but some things never change." The fact he made no effort to deny the 'mate' remark, quite a change seeing as how, when he'd left home, the two had only just begun to accept their feelings for each other, but before either man could comment on it, Pi interrupted.

Laughing again, she exclaimed, "All I need now is for mum to be here, and it'll be a true reunion."

Truniz barked a laugh himself, "You don't know the half of it: we dragged two whole families out here."

Before the man could say anymore, Kaen interjected, "Lemme guess, my old man's 'round here somewhere?"

Shaking his head, Truniz replied, "Slow down Hotshot", Pi's family's little nickname for him, Truniz especially, "This is my story to tell."

Nodding, he just said, "Tell away"

The younger of the two older men nodded, saying, "Anyway, like I was saying, I found this planet here on the to-do lists they got, and I decided to call out the old man," referring to Kellre, "and yours," referring to Kaen's father, Avarrdo, "that they been sitting too long with a book in their hand, and a stick up their ass, and that they could use the trip. 'Course, try talking Raene or April out of coming too, and you might as well try telling Frieza he sounds like a three year old girl with a dick up her nose; it'll hurt less. And, seeing as how the twins needed to learn how to cope as well, we dragged them along too, and have been clearing the place out ever since."

Frost gave up any sense of decorum and burst out laughing; nothing amused him more than a good Frieza-bashing. Kaen joined him, starting to chuckle around the 'sick up their ass' comment, before escalating to full blown hilarity by the time the Frieza comment arose, and even Kat started laughing, even though she only understood half of it. Flute, however, merely gave a slight curl of the lips at the reference to Frieza, nothing more, and the other two stoic warriors didn't even do that.

Kellre regarded his brother with a cool look that said 'Watch how hard I kick your ass later.'

Restraining his laughter, Kaen looked at Pi's father and asked, "So, you guys keeping score?"

Smirking, the older man replied, "Yes, I'm winning. Your mother's coming second actually, with your father tied with Raene for third. The twins decided to combine their score, which puts them ahead of Truniz, who is last." The final comment killed all mirth on his younger brother's face, and sent Pi into a fit of giggles.

Grinning, Kaen said, "Not bad old man, not bad at all."

Truniz muttered a few things under his breath, but before they got any louder his older brother cut in, "Come on over to the camp, I'm sure your folks would love to see how you've been keeping after all this time." He paused a moment as he remembered something, before adding, "Oh, that's right, you're meant to be dead. We should try and surprise them somehow."

Grinning wider, Kaen asked, "Got anything specific in mind?"

Kellre just shrugged, "No idea, but hey, you managed to stay alive, and unnoticed, for almost a year, so I'm sure you'll figure something out."

He just nodded, "I'll see what I can do."

Taking a moment to look over the party, Kellre added, "Bring your friends, come on, lunch time soon."

Kaen's eyes lit up, but he said nothing. Kellre led the way back, with Pi striding along by his side, practically beaming at the thought of being back with her family again; while Kaen was worth leaving them all behind, she would prefer to have both. Kaen, Kat and Truniz followed behind them, with Frost further back still, still chuckling to himself about that Frieza comment; he really needed to remember that. The other three kept to much the same pace they had before.

After a moment's walk, Truniz asked Kaen, "So, how long ago did Pi find you?"

Thinking it over, he replied, "I think it was about a month ago now, but it's hard to keep track without a proper day/night cycle."

Truniz just laughed, "I bet you two don't sit around counting hours anyway."

Smirking, he shot back, "Nope. We've got better things to do..."

Truniz just burst out laughing again, and a comfortable silence descended on the group.

o-o-o

As they reach the camp, a large clearing obviously made thanks to the landing of their space pods, two Saiyan women can be seen. One, Kaen's mother April, her hair fairly short, stopping just past her shoulders, yet fairly round; the other, her long black hair falling down to her waist, despite being tied back behind her, is obviously Pi's. With them, two younger Saiyans, in identical sets of armour, except for a different colour body suit, who are helping to set out what looks to be an extremely large meal by normal standards, but by Saiyan standards would qualify as a large snack at best.

Smiling at the sight, Kaen slows down while amongst the tree, to await the best time to make his appearance, letting the others continue on. Frost decided to wait also; he didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble. Flute and Viola, while they did choose to wait, waited outside of the tree line, in plain sight of the camp. Avery and Kat, on the other hand, made no effort to slow down; they were in no threat.

Laughing a bit at the mixed reactions, Kellre pushed Pi in front of him, declaring, "Look who we found!"

The twins looked up from their 'work', crying as one, "Big sister!" before racing towards her.

She laughed a bit as they approached, "You've gotten bigger!"

Oran screeched to a halt a foot away from her, but Lime just kept running, leaping up into Pi's arms, giggling all the while. Seeing as how his twin seemed to be in no mood to talk, Oran piped up, "Yup! And we've been training too!"

Smiling down at her 'little brother' she replied, "I can tell, you've gotten stronger."

Ceasing her giggling, Lime looked at Pi funny as she asked, "How can you tell? You don't have a scouter."

Pi just smiled cryptically at her, saying, "I'll show you some time." and winking. By this point the other women had come over, giving her a hug around Lime, who was still hanging onto her left arm, and exclaiming how happy they are to see her again.

Kaen just smiled at the little reunion from his place amongst he trees, but when Pi sent a feeling through the bond that could best be described as a gentle prodding, he knew she felt it was time to make his entrance. Using his super speed, he phased in behind everyone, or at least everyone who didn't already know he was there, and said, "Is this a private party, or can anyone join in?"

Purely by reaction alone, April, elbowed her son in the ribs, reprimanding, "What have I told you about trying to scare the twins like that?" It took her a moment to realise just what she'd said, and to whom she'd said it.

In fact, it wasn't until he grinned and replied, "Do they look scared to you?" that the pieces started to fall into place. Indeed, the twins looked more awed than anything else, and this time it was Oran that ran at the newcomer, although crash tackling would be a more accurate description had Kaen not managed to keep his footing. Messing up his little brother's hair, at least as much as it's possible to mess up a Saiyan's hair, Kaen remarked, a grin on his face, "I take it you missed me you little terror?" Oran just buried his head in his big brother's chest; in truth, he did miss him, but felt saying so might be seen as weak.

Recovering from her shock, April casts a quick eye over her son, and, as all mothers know how to do, could instantly inspect everything about him, from how he's been eating to his change of underwear. Raene shares a smile with her daughter after seeing Kaen alive and well; it seems the girl was right all along.

Still grinning as he swung his kid brother up onto his shoulders, Kaen remarked, "You know, for a group of people who was supposedly told I was dead, you don't seem too surprised to find out I'm not."

A short laugh came from behind him, the figure of a man, not too unlike Kaen himself in a few ways, fast approaching from the jungle. "If you were dead, I don't doubt you'd have taken the whole planet with you, and a fair chunk of the rest of the system as well I'm sure. Besides, you're not dead, so why should we worry about whether or not they said you were?" Kaen's father, a master of logic.

Turning around, Kaen replied, "You make a good point as always dad." The older man just makes an all too familiar smirk at his son's response. Setting Oran on the ground, he adopted a mock-angry look, obviously faked to anyone who knew him, as he added, "Oh, next time you build a ship, make sure you make it immune to Electro-Magnetic Storms. Damn thing completely fried my ship, and damn near killed me in doing so."

In a mirroring mock-angry tone Avarrdo replied, "Well, any fool with half a brain would know to avoid an EMS when his sensor array was telling him his current course had him heading into one."

Raising an eyebrow, the young warrior asked, "Have you ever tried piloting a ship when you're slipping in and out of consciousness? Let me tell you, it's not as easy as you make it sound." Snorting, he added, "Hell, I barely remember hearing a warning."

"Yes, well, allowing yourself to pilot the ship while in that state is hardly my problem."

April just smiled to herself, "It's so good to have everyone here, together again. It's just like old times." Pi and Raene just laughed quietly, but Kellre and Truniz put more effort into it.

"You make it sound like I had a choice," Kaen shot back, "Being beaten to the brink of death was never in my mission objectives."

"The fact you allowed yourself to be beaten that badly is hardly my problem either." There was a saying back on Vegeta-Sei, one that Avarrdo swore by, that could basically sum up his, for lack of a better word, uncaring attitude: 'You fight, you live, or you die; there's no half-way about it'.

Snorting again, Kaen replied, "I'd like to see you do better old man. Fifty of Frieza's finest against ten Saiyans, half of which were rookies, and still only one person from each side walked away." Grinning again, he added, "Well, most of one from their side."

"I'm sure I would have, but that opportunity has passed, and I, for one, am hungry." This was an old tradition of their, a little father-son bonding; they would argue back and forth, no-one really winning, before one of them would bring up food, thus ending the argument. Grinning a bit as well, he said, "So, who are your friends? I assume Frost, sitting under the trees over there, is with you, and the pair of Namek's too."

Nodding, the young man answered, "Friends isn't the word I'd use, but anyway. Over by Pi is Kat, who I met about a year ago, and Avery, who works for Frost; I'm sure you can work out which one's which. The Nameks are Flute, my current employer, and Viola; once again I'm sure you can place a name to a face." Saying this, he whistled loudly, calling out, "Oi, Frost, drag your scaly ass over here. Coast's clear."

Maintaining his calm look, although with a mildly sour look directed Kaen's way, Frost walked over, saying, "Thanks for the heads-up monkey-boy." Such a comment was a very dangerous thing to say around a single Saiyan, let alone a family of them, but the insult contained no real spite; nothing that would get him killed today. It was more of a nickname, but regardless, probably the only thing that saved him was the fact Kaen didn't react negatively to it; if he had, no doubt they all would have joined in the beating.

Still grinning, Kaen just replied, "No problem lizard." Their hearing giving them the cue, the Namek pair walked up, the very vision of politeness; despite any inner apprehension they may have had, they managed to maintain their stoic appearance.

April smiled broadly, "Well I'm sure we'll have enough for everyone, but if you brought any more Saiyans we might have a problem."

Her son just shook his head, "Nope, just one Neko, one Tori, and a lizard."

In a curt voice, the same one she always used when he was younger to remind him of his poor manners, she asked, "And your other two companions won't be joining us?"

He looked at the green-skinned beings, then back at her, and said, one eyebrow raised, "They're Namek's mum. They don't eat. Period."

Flute added, in a very polite tone of voice for a Namek, "We only need to drink water, thank you."

April nodded at Flute, a smile on her face, before shooting her eldest a glare that clearly read he could learn a thing or two from his friends. He just grinned cheekily, just like he'd done when he was younger; a silent way of showing that he'd never learn, and was too stubborn to try. And, within moments the third part of the tradition came about as, almost as a natural reaction, his father gave him a thwap over the head, to remind him to be mindful of his mother.

In truth, he barely felt the blow; he'd been on planets where insect bites hurt worse. Nonetheless he made a show of feeling it, stumbling forward a couple of steps before he 'regained his balance', and making Pi, Kat, and the twins burst out into a fit of giggles, which was the entire point. However, when he saw the look on Frost's face, what appeared to be an outwardly overly polite smile, Kaen's face darkened; it was quite obvious that Frost was having a hell of a time from laughing out loud, at him. A glare on his face, Kaen just said calmly, too calmly, "Not a word lizard. Not. One. Word."

Frost just made a calm, and plainly put on, innocent look, replying, "I don't know what you could possibly be talking about." Kaen just raised an eyebrow, giving the appropriate 'bullshit' look, to which Frost gave the complimentary shit-eating grin. It was all Kaen could do to keep from bursting out laughing; he would never admit, even under extreme duress, that he considered Frost something of a friend, and thus laughing would ruin the guise.

And, while Kellre and Truniz shared a laugh at the obvious, and poorly hidden, display of friendship, they said nothing, merely heading over to the food; they understood quite well that no Saiyan would ever admit to any Aisu being a friend of theirs, and, similarly, no Saiyan would ever call another out about it. Turning towards the food himself, Kaen asked offhandedly, "So, anything exciting happen while I was away?"

Raene responded, "Funny you should mention that actually, we're waiting on a message pod for news of home any day now."

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, he asked, "Why? Something wrong back home?" Pi smiled a little as she noticed that he was once again using the term 'home'.

Before anyone could say anything, April interrupted, "I think there will be plenty of time for talking later. Personally, I think it has been far too long since we've all sat down and had a meal together, don't you think?"

He just laughed a bit, "Couldn't agree more." Grinning cheekily again, he added, "Although, I should warn you I've been eating Pi's cooking for a month now, and it's very hard to compete with."

Raene just smirked, saying, "What can I say, she learnt from the best!" and, as the raucous laughter from her family died down, the gorging of a typical Saiyan meal began. It seemed that everyone there agreed with April, it had been far too long since everyone was together, but, as they enjoyed their meal in ways only Saiyans could, little did they know that dark news was on the horizon.

End Chapter 20

To be continued...