Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ
CHAPTER 2: A SEARCH FOR CLUES
"NANI?"
"His tongue's ripped out..."
"Impossible," Raditz was leaning over the shoulder of his brother to get a better look, "how could he have said all that then?"
"I have no fucking idea..." said Turles a bit annoyed, trying to shove away his sibling with all the hair that was falling over him while Raditz tried to stay put.
"What happened a thousand years ago..."
The two brothers looked a bit surprised to their prince who suddenly started speaking again. "Heh?"
"A thousand years have passed ... that's what he said, ne? So I ask, what happened a thousand years ago."
"Oh erm... how should I know... But does it actually matter?"
"That man was clearly addressing us..."
"He was?" Raditz looked back down to the corpse.
Vegeta snarled "Yes, baka. He saw us and suddenly started speaking our language, starting with 'You, yadda yadda...'"
"Oh yeah..."
Turles stood up, looking thoughtful "Fallen One... Chaos... battle over the universe?"
"Yeah, all sounds pretty weird to me..."
"Everything sounds pretty weird to you, little brother."
Raditz scowled at Turles, but didn't really dare to start a fight in the presence of the prince.
"I don't like this..." Vegeta spoke up again, "I don't like this at all... Raditz was right though, there is something weird going on here. We'll find out, but not now... we have to go back to the base, otherwise the almighty bastard might 'miss' us."
Vegeta and Turles walked back to their pods, but were stopped again, this time as Raditz suddenly spoke up "The legendary Super Saiya-jin..."
They turned looking to him "What?"
"What happened a thousand years ago... you asked, ne? ... the Legendary Super Saiya-jin appeared..."
"... You're right... Good thinking for once, little brother!" Turles laughed.
"... Could this 'Fallen One' be the Super Saiyan then?" Vegeta asked.
"Maybe rather, is the Super Saiyan the 'Fallen One'..." said Turles.
"What do you mean with that?"
"I mean... is the Super Saiyan really the 'One' mentioned in this... prophecy or how should I call it..."
"Heh, who cares! Let's just go already, 'kay?" Raditz called, sitting already in his pod and just about to close the hatch. Vegeta and Turles glared at him a little while before going to their pod and getting in as well.
A few minutes later, three streaks of light disappeared in the planet's atmosphere ... but there was no one there to see it anymore.
A few weeks later... The three Saiyans had gone on separate missions and Vegeta and Raditz just returned to their quarters at Frieza HQ Base.
"Man, I can't believe I had to stay two days in infirmary! The inhabitants were just damn weaklings..."
"You're just a weakling yourself, Raditz."
"You know that I'm not much weaker than yourself, my prince. But you were so lucky that you just stood behind me when they started firing their high- tech stuff..."
Vegeta glared at his longhaired comrade but didn't answer as Raditz actually wasn't lying. He just snorted and walked into his room, closing the door behind.
Raditz chuckled and walked into his own room, which he had to share with his elder brother. He flopped down on his bed, not bothering to change clothes or something, and while tugging his crossed arms under his head, he looked up to the ceiling, cushioning his head on his forearms.
Raditz blinked some noticing the uncharacteristic silence in the room and looked aside. He fell anime-style off his bed in surprise, his brother's bed was covered with several books and Turles was sitting Indian-style between them, focused on the book he was reading at the moment.
Hearing the sudden 'thud', Turles looked up from the book and glanced down to his little brother lying on the ground beside his bed. Turles cracked up at the sight and laughed loudly while Raditz tried and got up from his awkward position.
"Really, what the hell are you doing, Raditz, did Frieza pop up and bit your ass?"
"I ought to ask you that question; what's with the oh so sudden interest in literature?"
"Hm? Oh... this? Well... I just couldn't get that strange prophecy out of my mind..."
Raditz settled back down on his bed "Prophecy?"
"Yeah, that weird old man on that 'weakling' planet, remember?"
"Oh yeah... that guy without a tongue... say, why the fuck would they rip someone's tongue out?"
"... So that that someone can't speak anymore... hm, must have said something the local authorities didn't like..."
Raditz looked aside to his brother again "How the hell did he speak then? Heh, it probably was a stupid trick of some sort... maybe we were just dreaming even..."
Turles looked back down to his book. "We all can't have dreamt exactly the same thing, little brother..."
"Do you have a better explanation then?"
"... No... that's why I'm working my way through these books. Maybe whatever he said stands in one of them."
"You know in which book then?"
"Nope, I don't have a clue... maybe it isn't even in any of them. I just lend a couple of books..."
"You're just damn crazy, brother, and as paranoid as Zarbon. That guy's always frickin' nervous about the slightest thing."
"Don't start to insult me, 'kay?"
"Then let it go, man! But hey, if you want to read every last page of those books, I don't give a damn. Rather you than me."
"Oh no, little brother..." Turles looked back to Raditz with a slight smirk on his face "you're gonna help me in this, if you now want it or not."
"Heh, why the hell would I?"
"Consider it as an order of a higher- ranking soldier..."
"The ranks of Vegeta-sei don't count here anymore."
Turles suddenly stood up from his sitting position and, faster than the younger and weaker one could follow, he grabbed and held Raditz up by his collar. Holding him rather close, he spat in his face "You forgot how easily I can beat your sorry ass!"
Turles dropped him and sat down on the side of his bed, shoving some books aside with a swipe of his tail.
"Sometimes you really get too cocky for your own, little brother... You may be almost near the prince's level, you're still nowhere near mine."
"You damn exaggerate things too much." Raditz snarled back, rubbing his now sore neck, "You're still supposed to be my brother and fellow Saiyan..."
"True... someone else would probably have killed you by now, I've let you live every time."
Raditz remained silent this time, glaring daggers at his older sibling. While Turles returned to reading the book he was busy on, Raditz searched some through the pile of books, cursing under his breath in the dead Saiyan language as he did so. He grabbed some small book and sat back down on his own bed.
'End of Days' was printed in golden letters on the front of the book he held in his hands. "Interesting title..." he chuckled to himself. The book's cover was made of black leather and it was written in the intergalactic language, translation from a much older one.
Before he could start reading though, a sudden voice broke through the silence, which formerly dominated the room, "What are you two bakas doing?"
The brothers looked simultaneously up to a scowling Vegeta.
"Er... reading..." Turles spoke up, stating the obvious.
"I can see THAT, idiot, why are you bakas reading all those books?"
"You think I'm doing this for fun? He forced me to do this!"
"Shut up Raditz and finally start reading that damn book! You're slower than Dodoria with a hangover in a swimming race!" This earned him another death-glare from his annoyed brother.
"I still don't know what you're doing..." Vegeta glared along with Raditz to Turles, crossing his arms and slightly tapping his foot.
Turles looked from his brother to the prince, to Raditz and back again. " 'cause I just couldn't get the words of that old man out of my head... I'm trying to find some or another clue in one of these books."
"... Really, I said already, you're as damn paranoid as that green pretty-boy. And crazy too. What if you find some 'clue'? Does it fucking matter?"
"Well... erm... maybe it will. You'd never know."
Vegeta shook his head in pity
"And maybe instead of insulting me, you could help, Prince Vegeta."
"NANI?"
"You heard me. With three it goes faster than with two, ne? Well then."
"Screw this, you weaklings are plain crazy. I'm going to get myself some food and let you suffocate in your stupid books." He turned around and started to leave.
"I'm not the one who's the weakling here, Prince Vegeta..." Turles said, not looking up from the book anymore.
Vegeta flinched. Even if he knew that Turles was stronger than him, Vegeta certainly didn't like being reminded of it.
He turned around, snarling "Say that again and I'll ram that book through your throat, so you'll indeed suffocate from it."
Turles looked up with a bored expression "Your threats are rather hollow, my prince."
Vegeta almost fumed. He left furiously, to the training grounds instead of the restaurant, to let off some steam.
"You have some wits, big brother, to speak to our prince like that."
Turles shrugged "Sometimes he really behaves like a spoiled brat... he needs to know his superior."
Silence ruled the room once again.
"Say, Turles..."
"Hm?"
"What are... 'The Four Horsemen'?"
"... Something from a myth of some planet, I reckon... Why?"
"It appeared in the prophecy as well, ne? It stands here too..."
Turles looked immediately up to Raditz "It does? What stands there?"
" '... And the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will ride through the thunderous sky, to accompany their Lord and Master, the Prince of Darkness, leaving war, diseases, famine and death in their wake.' ... and then something referring to the 'Apocalypse' and the 'Book of Revelations'."
"The Apocalypse?... Isn't that a Chikyuu legend... I think you just found something important, little brother, good job!" he chuckled "Now we should try to find that Book of Revelations and we got it, we ..."
Turles was caught short when suddenly Dodoria entered the room "Ah, there are you monkeys. You're to go on a mission to the planet Calor. And hurry up, damn it, lazy animals!" He stormed off.
Used Japanese words:
'ne?': right/ isn't it so?
'Nani?': What?
'Chikyuu-sei': Earth
Ja ne! ( later)
