Disclaimer: don't own DBZ

CHAPTER 4: HORROR STORIES COMING TRUE

A strong-looking young man entered the small and peaceful village, immediately gaining the attention of all the inhabitants. He looked humanoid, except for the small horn in the middle of his forehead, a more canine snout and his clawed hands and feet, typical for his race. His furred skin was flaming red and his spiky, bright blue hair fell down to his waist, even if it was tied in a ponytail just below his neck. A fox-like tail of the same fur swayed slowly behind him.

It was Hond, who had left the village at a young age to go to the capital of the Western Country (where his village lay), and after completing his fighting training, returned to his hometown as a full-fledged and proud Tinean warrior, and thus bringing great honour to his family. There weren't that much warriors in this kind of villages and then mostly senior ones anyway.

After visiting his parents and family, he went to the house of his best childhood friend. On the way there, he looked around and noticed that almost all the children that had gone with him to the capital were still away. Only a few had become warriors. Others guards, trainers and some had become priests.

Xen was all too happy to see him again, even after all those years. Xen had decided, like most boys in the village, to pick up the occupation of his parents, unlike Hond, who had always been the adventurous one. They talked for hours, Xen about news of the village and Hond about his life in the 'big city'.

Soon other people joined the conversation, because everyone wanted to know if the rumours were true. Had the tyrant Frieza really made a proposition to the king of their planet, Calor, for their people to serve in the Ice-jin's army? The king had refused it, right?

Fortunately, he had indeed. Never would their race be slaves to that bastard. Even if they're a backwater place, everyone knew the many stories told about Frieza.

They even said that he had the invincible souls of the dead but still very feared Saiyan race on his side.

Hond chuckled, the tyrant was like a monster from a story parents tell to their children to make them obey 'Be good or else Frieza will come and get you!'

And what's so scary about these Saiyans anyway? They would be cold-blooded, murdering beasts, monkey-like devils.

And don't even start about what would happen at a full moon.

'Tss, yeah right...' Hond thought.

"Ooohhh... Is that true?" A bunch of small children were listening in on the conversation.

Hond smirked "Definitely. You'd better look out when you meet a person with a monkey-tail... They were vicious when they were alive, but in death... oh, they're a lot worse!"

Hond held his clawing hands up wolf-like, to look as scary as possible, as if he would pounce onto the children and tear them apart any second

"And look out, kids... 'cause tonight... it's a full moon!"

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"COOL!"

The children ran off, one playing the 'big bad Saiyan' chasing the others (the one that had yelled 'cool', obviously) while they yelled playfully in mock fear.

Hond laughed, Xen shook his head "That was... kinda mean, ya know."

"Hey, they asked for a scary story, they got one."

They looked up as the screams of the children suddenly grew and was joined with "oooooh's" and "aaaah's" from the adults.

Three strange streaks of light had appeared in the early afternoon air. First, Hond dismissed them as some falling stars, but they grew bigger and bigger.

"It's heading this way!" someone yelled.

In a blink of an eye, three large spheres of fire smashed into the village's ground, as by miracle, not hitting any house. The entire village gathered curiously around the formed craters.

"They're just some aliens..." Hond said to Xen. He nodded in reply.

The noise grew as suddenly one of the space pods opened. A tall, humanoid creature with incredibly long and wild hair rose from it. His deep, predatory eyes wore the same hellish black shade as his mane.

The second pod opened. A bit less than the first, but still a tall figure, the spikes of his ebony hair standing in every direction, emerged.

A third person appeared floating behind the first two. He had gravity-defying hair, standing up like a flame, and was rather short in height, but strong muscles were visible under the tight, dark blue fabric of his clothes.

The villagers stared wide-eyed at the foreign creatures.

The mayor of the village stepped forward from the awe-struck crowd. Only a few people, under whom the mayor, had recognised the armour these creatures were wearing as the trademark of Frieza's army.

"You already got your answer from our King! We will never serve your tyrant! Go back to where you came from and leave us alone... or else!"

The second creature, with the hair standing in all directions, grinned looking to his companion and spoke up "You hear that? He thinks we're messenger boys!"

The long-haired one chuckled "Baka... do we look like some messengers? We're the 'clean-up crew'!"

They both laughed. The third stranger, who had remained silent till now, grinned in the most evil smirk the face of this planet had ever seen.

Another shock went through the villagers. Not only from those words, also the sudden notice of what first had been dismissed as some strange belts, but now uncurled themselves from the creatures' waists and swayed slowly back and forth, like deadly cobras ready to pounce on their preys. Dark brown, furry tails, like the one of a monkey.

It seemed that his own words came back to haunt Hond. They aren't just some warriors... they're definitely Saiyans, but... the entire Saiyan race is extinct! Are they really ghosts? Demons summoned from hell by Frieza?

Finally, the third one spoke, in a sharp and dark voice "You stupid fool..." he extended his arm, pointing to the mayor "You will pay for your insolence to the Saiya-jin no Ouji!"

A small beam shot from his finger and pierced through the poor man's head, right between the eyes. Most people started screaming, others stiffened in fear when the mayor's body fell down limp. It was the sign to attack for the other two Saiyans.

With incredible speed, they suddenly shot forward and slashed like daggers into the crowd. There was no battle, just a bloodbath. The villagers had totally no means to defend themselves and just tried to run in blind panic, blocking the paths of the few warriors that the village counted. Not that they stood a chance either. The strength of the Saiyans was enormous, certainly compared to the villagers. The chaos was complete when also the third Saiyan joined in the 'fun'.

Hond tried to get through the hysterical fleeing people to the murdering beasts, but they only pulled him further away. Suddenly he was pushed harshly into a house and hit the opposite wall hard with his head. His vision clouded and before passing out, he saw Xen standing in the doorway yelling something to him of "Stay here! I'll ..." But he couldn't hear the rest.


When he finally woke up again, the first thing he noticed was the awful silence. Hond rubbed his sore head and the former situation he was in suddenly dawned on him. He quickly scrambled onto his feet and ran to the doorway of the house. At the sickening sight he got then, a enormous feeling of guilt, despair and pain overwhelmed him.

Blood was splattered everywhere over the fields and the walls of the houses, shattered bones with hunks of flesh still on them were thrown around and less identifiable parts lay scattered across the ground. Several heavily mutilated corpses were sprawled on the ground. Still fuming craters, ashes and scorches indicated the obvious use of strong ki blasts. Hond didn't know if it really had been invincible ghosts, but it was sure that it were monsters that were the cause of this... carnage.

He pricked his ears up when he thought he suddenly heard some voices talking. He sneaked around the house, having a lot of effort not to vomit over the mangled body parts against the wall and the sickening stench of blood and gore.

Hond noticed some kind of campfire in the distance and apparently two figures, one standing, the other sitting on a rock. When he got closer, he noticed the two dancing tails behind the creatures.

The feeling of despair grew as he pressed himself against the ground, obliging himself not to jump up and try to attack the demons. Hot tears burned in his eyes, he pressed them shut and clenched his teeth. He can't cry now! They would hear them. Fortunately, it didn't seem they had noticed him yet. Hond opened his eyes when he felt something roll beside him...


Raditz turned around hearing a blood-curling scream behind him. "What was that..."

"It seems that you've missed one..." Vegeta said calmly, chewing on the flesh torn from a bone in his hand. "What are you waiting for... go check it out."

"Hai, Ouji-sama."

As the other Saiyan walked off, he looked away to the horizon. "Hmm... Turles should be back soon. Then we can finally get to the real business. These stupid villages are starting to bore me..."

Hond couldn't help it but to scream at the sight of the bloodied head of his best friend, torn of from his body, wide, empty eyes staring at him and his mouth set in an eternal silent scream. Hond trembled in shock and breathed fast and uncontrolled. He didn't notice the shadow looming over him.

"Well, well, what do we have here..." Raditz smirked and picked the trembling boy up by the back of his neck, bringing him to face-level. The youth still didn't seem to notice him. The big Saiyan growled and shook him. Finally, his eyes seemed to focus onto the person holding him. Fortunately for the Saiyan's ears and for himself, the boy could hold his scream back this time.

'What now?' The monster had noticed and grabbed him! There was no way out of this...

The Saiyan merely smirked into his face and dragged him over to the campfire and his companion. 'Where is the other one? Was he killed? ... Probably not... but hopefully, he was. It seems so anyway.'

Raditz dropped the young Tinean in front of the Saiyan Prince. Dropping on his hands and knees, Hond automatically looked up into the face of the demon.

They'd probably kill him like they had done with everyone else. Hond didn't care. He would be brave. He wouldn't fear his death. But when he looked into those deep, onyx eyes, the only thing he felt was fear. As if he looked into the eyes of Death himself.

It suddenly reminded him of a song, sung by older priests, under whom his sensei, who still knew the legends of yore. He couldn't fully remember how it went, only the beginning:

I can see it clearly now, a painful vision indeed,

An attack on hollow ground, from high above

Alien to us, the species known as man

A serious threat, in the eyes of the Elder

So behold the birth, the wicked child

Born of the Beast, in Eastern sands

He will arise, He will divide

He has the power to bring the end

'Birth of the Wicked?...' He shuddered and backed away, only to hit the body of the other Saiyan behind him. The Saiyan laughed and kicked into his back, sending Hond face first into the dirt.

"Well, Raditz, why didn't you kill this lowlife yet..."

"Aww, Vegeta, I just wanted some fun before I do..."

"Hm..."

Raditz grabbed the boy in front of him by his hair and pulled him up. He looked to his pain-contorted face and threw him aside against a rock. He crouched in front of him, pulling his head up again by his hair. "So kid... what's your name..."

"H-Hond..." 'Now they're toying with me... What have we ever done to deserve this...' The smaller Saiyan stood up as well, laying his food momentarily down. 'Wait... if they're eating... that means...'

"Y-You aren't ghosts?" This earned him another burst of laughter from the taller Saiyan.

"Ghosts? Now why would you think that, kid?" Vegeta couldn't care less about this kid, but this fact slightly caught his interest.

"You are Saiyans... I-I thought you were all killed... T-They said Frieza used the hell-bound ghosts of the Saiyans as fighters..."

Raditz chuckled "Hear that, Vegeta? We're popular..."

Vegeta snorted "Kill the twerp already..."

"Hai."

Hond flinched. He can't die yet! Who's going to avenge his people? "You'll be sorry one day! Someone will once beat you and you will pay for everything you have done!"

"Sure, kid... that's what they all say." Raditz said lazily, raising a hand.

The Saiyan released a ki blast at point blank, causing the young warrior to fly back several meters and finally fall down limp into the dirt. Raditz sat back down by the fire and grabbed a hunk of meat.

Several minutes later, Turles land beside them. "The entire area is cleared, my prince. We can go to the largest cities now."

Vegeta nodded.


Hond groaned inwardly. Wait a sec... he wasn't dead yet ! Maybe he is stronger than he thought... anyway, stronger than the Saiyan thought. Yeah, he wasn't dead, but not far from it. His entire body ached; the Saiyan did succeed in disabling his entire movement. Everything hurt too much.

'I just... need to rest a little...' He slumped back down into oblivion, the last thing he heard being "We will wait till the moon rises..."