Back at it! And Happy belated Thanksgiving wherever you are! So how will Raditz react to seeing his long lost mother again? Let's find out together!
Based on MasakoX's What If series "What if Gine went with Goku to Earth?", but a retcon with some changes of my own on how I think the story would have went down had Goku's mother escaped planet Vegeta with him.
DISCLAIMER: The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Dragonball Minus, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball Super, and Dragonball GT are all owned by FUNimation, Toei Animation, and Akira Toriyama.
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CHAPTER 29: RADITZ
Everyone starred wide-eyed and dumbstruck between the Saiyan visitor and Gine. Yamcha was the first to realize what the stranger just uttered.
"What? "Mother?!"" He said out loud, breaking the tense silence.
Kakarot looked to his friend, and understood that yes, this Saiyan had indeed addressed his mother as... His eyes widened as a realization took hold.
He whipped around to Gine for an answer. "Mom? Is this..."
Gine didn't react. She was anchored to where she stood on the front porch, unable to move or speak. She could only gawk at the man standing in front of her son. No... that man was her son too! How could she NOT know it was him? His bewildered reaction to seeing her and recognizing her, confirmed the suspicion.
Raditz...
The last time she saw him, he had been sent off on a mission with Prince Vegeta's crew just weeks before Frieza destroyed their home planet. He was only six years old then, pint sized like Kakarot but had his unusually long hair that made him indistinguishable from a wild animal. Unlike his younger brother that took after her softness, Raditz was more like Bardock. Sour-looking scowl, eager to prove himself, and even holding the same indifference to her. Just like any other typical Saiyan. The only thing that separated him from other Saiyans being that he had a sort of weaselly way about him that some would've called cowardice. How he would scheme or play to his advantage everything he could to get ahead. Things like feigning surrender when cornered, only to strike when your back was turned. A dirty bastard, but a smart and cunning one. Although she chaffed at how he used his unsavory means that won him no friends at all, his brains allowed him to come back alive from missions that otherwise would've been suicidal. He was a survivor, and that made her proud of him.
There were times in her more darker moods that she used to wonder what he would've looked like if he was still alive. If Frieza was truly intent on the extermination of the Saiyans, he might have fled to some other part of the galaxy, taking on a new identity and look, starting a new life in exile like she did. Or if Frieza had spared him and some stragglers, still fighting in the Planet Trade Organization and looking as grown up as he did now but with slight differences. It appears that it was the later case.
Raditz looked just as familiar now as he was when she last saw him as a child. His hair was just as proportionally long and wild, and had the same facial features and inflictions as his father. But now he towered over them and had a much bulkier build than Kakarot, Gine had no idea what part of his genetics made him that way. He wore the set of armor she was all too familiar with among low-class Saiyan warriors, fitted with a scouter and all. The light of hundreds of different suns had tanned the pale skin he once had, highlighting numerous faint battle scars. And his eyes, ones that used to harbor just plain annoyance and the perpetual frown of his father, now held the disposition of someone who spent a lifetime surrounded by death and destruction.
It really was him. Her firstborn son, after twenty-four years, was standing before her. Alive and well!
Gine felt a whirlwind of emotions that hit her all at once. She had long thought, believed, that he was dead. She had mourned for him, accepted that he was truly gone, and moved on with life. But now that he was here before her eyes, her mind and heart were unable to process it all. It threatened to overwhelm her into a fit of fainting...
"Mom?!" Kakarot repeated his question, but his mother still did not answer or move.
The front door banged opened behind her as Chi-Chi, Bulma, and the others inside Kame House came out after her. They stopped when they saw Raditz.
"Huh?... Wh-Whose that guy?!" Bulma asked nervously, curious but weary of the stranger.
Gine was aware that she had an audience, but she didn't care. Her thoughts were a garbled mess as she tried to think of what to say. Hell, where was she to even begin?!
"MOM!" Kakarot yelled.
Gine was startled enough to snap out of it and look to her youngest son.
"What's going on?! You know this guy?!" Kakarot demanded while pointing at Raditz, who still didn't take his eyes off of her.
She looked back at Raditz from Kakarot, suddenly became aware of the seemingly insignificant act of differentiating between the two. This was the very first time in over two decades that she had both of her children in her field of vision. It would've been a joyous moment if it weren't so painful.
Letting out a shaky breath she didn't realize she had been holding in, Gine slowly walked down the porch toward Raditz. She didn't take her eyes off of him.
"Kakarot, this is..." Gine said in a voice barely above a whisper. She swallowed a few times before she could speak past the lump building in her throat. "...this is Raditz."
Her youngest son gasped. "Wait. You mean..."
"Yes..." Gine said quietly. Her vision was starting to dampen from tears. "...this is your brother."
Kakarot did a double take from Raditz to his mother and back again so quickly it hurt his neck, then back to Raditz. "You're my brother?!"
Everyone exclaimed in shock and disbelief. "Ka-Kakarot has a BROTHER?!" Krillin stammered in astonishment.
They all studied the larger Saiyan in front of Kakarot, bewildered by the revelation. Nobody outside the Son family knew of Raditz. They always assumed Kakarot was an only child. Kakarot himself only trusted Chi-Chi enough to tell her of his long lost brother, and asked her not to speak of it since it was one of the few things that would bring his mother to tears. So they never spoke of him. Now that he was here, Kakarot was having trouble grasping the very concept of him having someone else who had the same mother as he did. It felt weird, but comforting in a way.
He relaxed his stance as he looked his brother up and down, fascinated. Raditz, who had been frozen in his spot for a long time and not taking his eyes off of his mother, noticed his brother examining him like he was a strange new insect. On planet Vegeta, it was considered impudent to not always be on guard or always assessing danger when meeting strangers, as any warrior worth his or her salt would. Raditz was old enough to have picked up this social norm from their home planet, and understood that Kakarot would not, with him being an infiltration baby. Nonetheless, he felt insulted by Kakarot's un-Saiyan-like behavior of not even bothering to put up a defense or ready himself for battle. The worst part in Raditz's eyes being that Kakarot didn't have to, as his strength as shown on Raditz's scouter clearly indicated that his younger brother would squash him like a bug if it came to blows. Like Raditz, for his own weakness, was not worthy enough already for just common Saiyan manners anyway.
Gine saw Raditz's eyes darting between her and Kakarot, and realized she had to say something before he did something rash.
"Raditz... how did...? Why are...?" Gine rambled, then stopped. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but didn't know where to start. To calm herself down slightly and to try think more clearly, she took a deep breath and begun to find the words to say.
"Son..." She choked at saying that word to her eldest. "...how are you alive?"
Raditz's gaze turned back to her fully. The shock slowly wore off of his face, and gave way to anger. She was the last thing he ever expected to find on this planet alongside his brother. But it wasn't a particularly happy surprise.
"H-how am I alive?" He said hotly. "How are YOU alive?! Father told me that Kakarot was to be sent off-world. He didn't mention anything about you! Why are you here?!"
Gine didn't understand what Raditz meant. "I... I went with him." She said feebly as if it were obvious.
"Tsh. You went with him..." He mockingly repeated. "Like it was that easy. I've always known you were weak, but I didn't think you were such a coward! While everyone died trying to defend our home world, you just fled with him! " Raditz fumed, pointing angrily towards his younger brother. Kakarot just stood by, watching the drama unfold and feeling uncomfortable about being the subject of contention.
Grandpa Gohan eyed Gine worryingly from the porch of Kame House. If the barbarity of Saiyan nature was anything to go by from what Gine explained to him, then he did not want to be around if this turned ugly. A part of him did wonder too what would've happened if Gine's long lost child had returned someday, and this Raditz had him certainly drawn to learn more of his adopted daughter's ancestry...
No, this was not the time and place for him to pry. He looked around to see everyone else watching. Realizing this was a delicate moment unfolding, he grabbed Bulma and Chi-Chi by the arm.
"Come, let's go back inside." He whispered.
Bulma turned to him confused and about to protest, but Gohan answered firmly: "This is a family matter. Let them have some privacy."
Bulma opened her mouth to say something, but closed when she realized he was right. Chi-Chi stood there, wondering if she qualified as family to listen, until she saw her own son clinging to Kakarot's leg and ultimately thought of leaving this to her husband and his blood relatives.
Gohan waved over to Master Roshi, who seemed to understand the gravity of the familial situation. Nodding to Krillin and Yamcha to follow him silently, they slowly retreated around Kakarot and Gine unnoticed. Soon the three Saiyans, plus Little Gohan, were all alone outside.
Gine quietly thanked Grandpa Gohan with every ounce of her heart for his perception, and answered back to Raditz.
"Yes, Raditz, your father told you that Kakarot would be sent here. But did you receive any other notification that I would be joining your brother too?"
Raditz looked incredulous that she would gloss over the fact that she had ran away, but he just shook his head. "No. I didn't."
Gine felt her heart drop into her stomach. How could that be?! Bardock had explicitly told her that he would tell Raditz of the last minute change of plan! She was there! He promised her that he would find Raditz and tell him of their whereabouts... didn't he?
...
"I will go face Frieza right after you launch, hopefully I can distract him enough to allow you two to escape."
Gine looked at Bardock with awe, how a low-class warrior like him would go on to challenge the galactic tyrant himself.
"Who knows, I may even beat him. Besides, we Saiyans will not go quietly." He said with an ounce of pride. She remembered then why she fell for him.
"If you do..." She said, "...You know where to find us. And find Raditz if you can." Sadness returning to her at the mention of her eldest. Oh she dearly wished she could have seen him one last time. If he was still alive...
"I will." He promised.
So many impossible promises being made already, Gine thought morbidly. But no matter what, in death or on a far flung world, they will all be reunited as a family again. Someday...
...
The memory replayed in her head, and Gine's shoulders slumped.
"So... you didn't receive a message from your father about us coming here?" She asked for clarification, but she already knew the answer.
Raditz growled impatiently. "As I said: there was no mention of you."
Gine sighed. Figures. She thought mournfully.
Perhaps Bardock didn't have enough time before he went off to face Frieza, or he simply forgot to. That last possibility stung, but seemed the most likely. As much as she wished that he reciprocated her feelings even after all these years, she knew he didn't hold her in that much of high regard, and only reluctantly agreed to her decision to come here. So he may not have bothered to update their firstborn on that important little tidbit. Either way, they'll never know.
"I told him to let you know that we were coming here." She said defeatedly while mentally cursing Bardock.
Raditz snorted at what he thought was a lame excuse. "Hmph. He really went along with sending you here too?!"
When he could see that she wasn't lying, his angry gaze turned to sadness.
"Well... he certainly failed to notify me." He spat bitterly.
In his mind it was as if his own father had deemed his weakling mother and son more worthy of saving than him, like an insult from beyond the grave. Raditz would've found it funny if it weren't so damn hurtful. How much more worthless was he supposed to feel?
Gine's heart panged as she stared at the ground in dismay. To think that such a minor lack of communication could be responsible for so much grief inflicted on them all.
Raditz's gaze wandered back over to Kakarot and noticed Little Gohan clinging to his father's leg. He cowered under Raditz's stare, and the sight of a small tail nervously waving around caught his eye.
"That boy." Raditz said suddenly. "He is of Saiyan descent?"
Kakarot bent down and scooped up Little Gohan into his arms. He held him protectively close. "Yeah! This is my son, Gohan."
Little Gohan buried his face within his father's shoulder. He peeked with one eye to look at the man that was his uncle, while Raditz looked surprised at the news that he now had a nephew.
"Go... han?" Raditz repeated the strange word to his Saiyan tongue.
"That's not a very Saiyan name." He opined, with an undertone of some approval that their family line was continued. "Who spawned him?"
"My wife, Chi-Chi." Kakarot answered with a smile as he hugged his son. "He's named after the human who found us and took us in when I was a baby."
Raditz grimaced in disgust. The gross displays of affection were off-putting enough, but his brother had not only procreated with one of the weakling natives of this planet, but also wedded? Raditz always thought that custom was a special right granted to the Saiyan royal family of Vegeta, not something every low-class warrior could partake. How could Kakarot violate such a sanctimonious act, and how could their mother tolerate it if she taught him that?
With his focus and anger redirected back to his mother, Raditz demanded, "You still didn't answer my question. Why did you go with Kakarot? Why didn't-"
He paused, looking uncomfortable as he tried to get out what he wanted to say. Then asked quietly, "Why didn't you come looking for me?"
"I..." Gine begun, but stopped. She didn't know what to say.
Over the years, the fate of her firstborn had always plagued her every thought in the back of her mind, and often wondered if she really did all she could on that day. There were always doubts. Had she done enough? Had she really not known where he was? Couldn't she have risked sending him a message herself before they launched to Earth? Or have taken off in her pod in search of him once she knew Kakarot was safe? A thousand times she asked herself these questions. A thousand times she tried to tell herself that she did what she could under the circumstances, and in the end she blamed herself for letting him down. Even though she had long since wept for him, come to terms with his "death", and just like with how she could rationalize partaking in the purging of countless worlds, told herself it wasn't her fault. But on some level she had never forgiven herself for not trying hard enough.
Now with her son standing in front of her, that unbearable guilt had returned ten-fold. Not only had she failed him, she felt like she had abandoned him. He was still alive, and she could only imagine the pain and suffering he had to endure during the last twenty years he spent under Frieza's thumb while she and Kakarot lived in total freedom. Looking over the scars on his body, she knew that his life had been a living hell.
If only she had known that he was alive, that she could retrieved him and brought him back to Earth, spare him from all those years of suffering...
But then Gine caught her breath. She was struck with another realization. A certain memory from eight years ago...
...
"I- uh... Fortuneteller Baba, right?" Gine asked.
"Last I checked, that was me." Baba said deadpan.
Gine didn't care for her wits, and got to the point. "Kami said that you were the person to talk to if I wanted to bring someone back from the dead for one day."
"That's right." Baba nodded. "And I understand that you wish to bring back your eldest child and the father of your children?"
Gine was shocked. "Wait, how did you know that already?"
Baba looked at her seriously, "I'm a fortuneteller, dummy. I have the power of divination, which means I can see all events that are happening in this world and others, and events that have happened, and will happen."
Oh. Gine thought. From gods to Namekians, talking cats and now clairvoyants, this day kept getting weirder and weirder. But she faintly remembered Bardock for a moment, and how he told he could see the future...and how their world would end...
"And I foresaw this moment where you wanted to ask me on guidance from Kami on how to bring your deceased loved ones back to life."
Gine nodded desperately. "Yeah, that's right. Bardock and Raditz."
Baba looked at Gine for a long moment, then breathed a heavy sigh.
"Sadly, I'm sorry to tell you this as well, but even a temporary visit would be impossible."
Kakarot slumped his shoulders at hearing that. He was as saddened as his mother was that they were somehow destined to never have the chance to meet his extended family afterall. But he eyed Gine, as her tail frayed upright. And that made him curiously uneasy as he knew that usually happened when his mother was angry.
"Why can't you bring their souls back?" Gine asked hoarsely. She was feeling the grief and angry overtaking her again, but there was something in that anger that felt far more threatening.
"Because their souls were lost in limbo." Baba stated matter-of-factly.
"Huh? What's limbo?" Kakarot asked, taking momentary glances between Baba and his mother.
"Limbo is a place where souls of the dead who were not ferried to Otherworld by a Guardian go to. Once they are there for a long enough time, they vanish into the ether and no force in existence can undo that." Baba explained.
"But why would Bardock and Raditz be lost in there?! How do you lose a soul?!" Gine asked louder than she realized, tears falling freely.
Kakarot's gaze to her looked concerned, and even Kami noticed. Baba seemed unfazed however, and calmly answered.
"For the Guardian of your home world, Vegeta, was most likely killed when this 'Frieza' destroyed your planet. And as Kami has explained to you his duties for ferrying souls once people died on Earth, this Guardian had the same job. And if that Guardian was killed, then all who perished on your world would be sent into a cold oblivion for eternity."
...
Fortuneteller Baba, that little witch and Master Roshi's sister, had told her that her son was long dead as well. Had she been wrong? Or...
It was all becoming too much for Gine's fragile emotional state to handle. Again, her mind seemed to hook onto that memory as proof of her culpability in Raditz's plight. That she had taken the word of a decrepit old woman over her own maternal instinct to go find him for herself. Along with another frightening possibility that protruded itself: that Fortuneteller Baba had lied to her. That her son was alive afterall despite her "ability" to be omniscient of all things and people alive or dead. If that was true, then she was as furious at herself as she was at Baba. She could have used the dragonballs to wish him here afterall!
How could I be so stupid?! She thought furiously to herself.
"Well?!" Raditz asked expectantly. There was a hint of hurt in his voice, as if presuming his mother's silence indicative that she didn't find his question worthy of an answer.
Realizing she hadn't said anything yet, Gine forced herself to push her thoughts aside. She'll deal with Baba later. Now, she owed her son an answer.
"I...I thought you were dead." She said weakly. "I thought everyone died on planet Vegeta that day."
But even to her ears that sounded inexcusable. Raditz was right, she just ran away while Bardock went to face his death against Frieza. And in her own despair, she gave up her search to find her other child.
Raditz seemed to think this too, "So you just gave up." He said as if stating a fact.
Gine didn't say anything.
He looked away, unable to hide the contempt in his voice. "While you were cozy here on this rock, I've been surviving every day as a punching bag for Prince Vegeta and destroyed countless civilizations in Frieza's name... Some mother you are."
Long ago, Gine was used to that kind of talk even from her own son, and would've just taken it. But now those words cut through her like a knife. It was a guilt she couldn't bear. How he had suffered while she and Kakarot lived blissfully unaware and peacefully. She had failed him in every way...
Kakarot had been standing by ever so deathly quiet as he watched the emotional scene, with Little Gohan watching curiously in his father's arms. The youngest of the three full-blooded Saiyans couldn't fathom how powerfully sad this moment was for his mother and long lost brother, and it made him feel somewhat responsible for all of this grief. He couldn't stand to see his own mother so... broken, all because a long time ago she had to make an impossible choice for saving his own hide.
Feeling like he had to say something to break the ice cold tension in the air, he realized Raditz hadn't answered his... no, their mother's question yet.
"Ahem... So, uh, Raditz... How did you survive our home planet's destruction?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
They both heard him and his jarring attempt to lighten the mood. Gine didn't react, and Raditz looked to some invisible point on the horizon as he spoke with disinterest.
"I was off-planet when the meteor struck."
That caught Gine's attention, and temporarily stopped her downward spiral.
"Meteor?" She asked in confusion.
Raditz looked at his mother like she was stupid. "Yes, meteor! The one that destroyed planet Vegeta."
Gine felt as if the ground was going to drop from under her feet, glancing to Kakarot who stared back with a knowing look that meant: Either Raditz didn't know, or...
"W-who told you that?" She asked Raditz.
Her eldest son eyed her suspiciously, and a trace of fear crept across his face when he realized that perhaps his mother knew something he didn't.
Gine shook her head. Of course it had to have been from Frieza if no other Saiyan had witnessed what happened that day.
"Raditz... there was no meteor."
The larger Saiyan tensed up, and spoke with a quivering voice. "Wha... what do you mean?"
She looked him in the eye. "It was Frieza."
Raditz looked and felt like he had been gut-punched. "WHAT?!"
"Frieza was the one who destroyed our home planet." She repeated. "I saw it myself the day we fled, made it off-world just minutes before he exploded it."
He glared at her to see if there was any trace of a lie. But there was none, his mother was telling the truth.
"Y-You did?" He asked reluctantly, to which Gine nodded.
Gine could see how her son had trouble believing her. She didn't blame him. If anyone told her that the ruler of the known universe, whom the Saiyans had been the most faithful servants to, had turned against them, she'd think they were crazy. But Bardock never lied to her about something so serious as something like that. He had warned her of their world's imminent doom and she knew he was telling the truth.
"Frieza..." Raditz uttered the tyrants name. Bafflement, rage, and sadness flashed across Raditz's face. "B-But... how? WHY?!"
She breathed deep, pulled deep at the memories of that fateful day so long ago. "Your father believed that the Saiyans were becoming too great a threat to Frieza, so he decided to destroy us all. Bardock sent me and Kakarot here to save us, while he went to confront Frieza himself."
Even after all these years, the knowledge that her partner, a mid-class Saiyan by his own right, stood up to the most powerful being in the universe in what was sure to be a suicidal act, was probably the greatest show of bravery any warrior could have done. It made Bardock seem all that more inspiring to her.
"We tried looking for you, but..." Her voice trailed off uncomfortably. They already knew of the failed attempt to notify him and didn't need repeating that painful detail.
Gine shook her head before continuing. "We couldn't risk telling you exactly what we were doing on account of Frieza or his men listening in on the scouter network. They would have hunted us down if we did. So your father said he would try to reach out to you clandestinely to let you know of our trip to here. After awhile, when you or Bardock never came for us... I thought Frieza had killed you and any other Saiyans that were off-world. I had every reason to think that Kakarot and I were the only survivors. So... we stayed here, to hide from him." She finished quietly.
Raditz let his gaze drift down at the ground and mouth agape as he tried to digest everything his mother just said.
His world felt like it had been turned upside down. It was so much to process, and it didn't make any sense. He had known Frieza had always hated the Saiyans, but always counted on them to conquer in his name. The Saiyans in turn, had done everything Frieza had demanded of them, and of him. Raditz, along with all other Saiyans, had destroyed countless worlds, committed atrocities so unspeakable that even a hardened Saiyan like Raditz was unrelentingly haunted by them. He felt pain he'd never had to carry on his shoulders if they hadn't just submitted to Frieza's rule. But he at least told himself that all that they had done was for the great cause of universal domination, and prided himself that his kind was leading the charge. Taking on the most dangerous missions and making their dominion across the galaxy possible through their strength.
But now, with Frieza having betrayed them it felt like it all of their efforts and the suffering endured was for nothing. The lizard tyrant had used their kind and discarded them like trash before they could claim supremacy over all the known cosmos.
Perhaps the Saiyans WERE getting to strong for Frieza to control. That one day they would rebel against him. He felt a swell of pride at hearing how his father, a low-class warrior, stood up to the tyrant himself in the face of certain death. But also felt the tragic irony that Bardock leading the charge against Frieza was what triggered the chain of events leading to planet Vegeta's destruction.
Raditz felt anger rising within him again, but this time at Frieza. All this time, he had been lied to. Serving the destroyer of his kind while blind to what he had done.
He clenched his fists hard, and barred his teeth. Damn him! He thought.
Gine eyed her eldest son sympathetically as he took a minute to absorb all that. She too felt the same shock upon realizing that her son was alive as much as a shock it was for him now to realize he had been lied to.
Lied to... that hurt her too. In a way, she had been not just by Baba, but by fate itself. All those nights she cried herself to sleep mourning for him. The days of feeling like a part of her had died with him on that day. All that time, he was still alive and having to toil an existence of indentured servitude, doing things that no one should ever had been forced to do.
"I'm so sorry I didn't find you sooner, sweetheart." Gine said softly. It was far too late for an apology to be of any consolation, but it was something. She walked up to Raditz until she was mere inches from him, looking straight up into his eyes.
"I can never forgive myself for all that you had endured to get here, living under some monster that wanted you dead..."
Her eyes stung as tears fell freely down her cheeks, and her voice cracked as she spoke. "I cannot put into words how happy I am to see you."
With trembling slowness, Gine reached up with both of her hands and cupped Raditz's cheeks. He flinched at her touch, but didn't pull away. As she brushed her thumbs along his cheek, she could see the deep-seated pain and sadness in Raditz's eyes. It was an expression she knew all too well as the kind she once had for all the conscience-destroying horrors one bore witness to in a lifetime. The things he had done, or forced to do, to survive.
But whatever he had done didn't matter to her. He was alive and in her arms again.
"Raditz..." She said in a wheezy, tear-choked whisper. But she couldn't say more. The physical contact of her long lost son made him that much more real, a touch she never forgot since she last held him so long ago and thought she'd never feel again, broke the damn within that held back her overflowing emotions.
All composure gone, Gine flung her arms around Raditz, embracing him tightly and sobbed uncontrollably. Tears stained his armor, and she didn't care if everyone overheard her wailing of sorrow and joy.
She wept for the peaceful life that Raditz had been robbed of. Never for him to feel safe from the terrors of reality as any child should, and of the time she could've watched him grow as her youngest child did. But most of all, she was overjoyed to have her baby back.
Raditz felt like he was getting crushed by his mother's embrace, forgetting that she was far stronger than him. But he paid that no mind. He just stood there, arms hanging limply by his sides and unsure of what to do as Gine clung to him and cried. He didn't expect his mother to break down in front of him like this, something he would of seen as utterly pathetic. But... he welcomed it somehow. And as she cried and held him in the loving way he had not experienced since he was a child, emotions he thought long buried started resurfacing as he started choking up too. He dared not weep, a cold stubbornness imbedded into him from the years of soul-deadening pain forced him not to. But he couldn't help feeling his eyes sting and finding it hard to breathe. It was like he was a child again, safe in his mother's arms.
Overcome with emotion, Raditz looked away. He didn't want his mother or brother to see his moment of weakness.
Kakarot felt himself getting teary-eyed too at the sight of his mother happily reunited with the brother he never knew. But he just looked at the ground, not particularly sure of how to deal with this kind of experience.
Soon Gine's sobs quieted to hiccupping sounds as she held onto her eldest son as if for dear life. The powerful wave of emotions that swept through Raditz made him feel uncomfortable, and he shared a look with his little brother that conveyed how awkward he felt with their mother clinging to him. In an almost brotherly moment, Kakarot felt solidarity for his big brother about how their mother was dehydrating herself by crying so hard for so long.
"So I guess you're staying with us now?" Kakarot said with a cheerful smile to end the tearful moment.
"Wha-WHAT?" Raditz recoiled.
That got Gine to stop crying, still having her face buried in Raditz's chest as she sniffled. At first she didn't hear what Kakarot said until she felt Raditz step back in her grasp, for the emotions still drowned out all of the thoughts in her head and her external senses. But upon registering what her youngest said, she couldn't help but smile at his suggestion.
"Live here? With you?" He asked incredulously.
Kakarot smiled sincerely. "Sure! I mean, you're family afterall. Besides, Mom and I managed to live free from Frieza here, I'm sure you can too."
Raditz was too taken aback by that. The act of kindness towards him from Kakarot addressing him as family in a fond manner was shocking enough, but to suggest such a treacherous act of just deserting the Frieza Force to hide out on this planet with them? The idea seemed so absurd, it was almost laughable.
He looked down to notice his mother staring up at him with her puffy eyes full of desperate hope.
"Stay here with us. You're here with us, you're home." She said almost pleadingly.
Now Raditz was thoroughly stunned. This day has been nothing but one shocking revelation after another. But this one topped them all.
His brother and mother, whom he earlier had no qualms about killing in cold blood, had just offered him sanctuary with open arms. Could he really just live with his long lost family here peacefully, and... free from Frieza?
This was all so unexpected of what was supposed to be a simple mission of retrieving his brother. But now that he was too strong to take by force, that was off the table; compounding that with his mother being alive and suggesting he abandon his current life as if he had a choice, this was becoming all too much for the long-haired Saiyan to process. His fight-or-flight senses were screaming at him to just fly away and pretend this never happened. But first he'd had to fight off his brother and mother, which of course he knew there was no chance he'd get back to his ship in time before they caught up to him. Even if he did escape or leave willingly, he couldn't just go back to Vegeta empty handed. Worse, he couldn't go back to life under Frieza with what he knew now, but he also cannot just strike out on his own, he'd be hunted down and executed for sure. What was he supposed to do?
Gine could see Raditz's rising panic in the shaky shiftiness in his eyes as he thought of a way out of this situation. She reached up and cupped his face again in her hands. That drew him out of his head and forced him to look at his mother.
"Raditz..." She said gently. "There's no need for worry. You don't need to run. You are free from him here."
He was about to protest but Gine shushed him, she wasn't done talking.
"Son... I cannot tell you how much I grieved for you, thinking you were dead. There wasn't a single day that went by where I haven't thought of you, and how much I missed you." Even though her eyes stung from crying before, Gine felt them moisten again at the memory of all the pain she kept inside from the last twenty-fours over him.
She continued, "I'm so happy are alive and back to me... Now that you are here, I don't want you to leave to keep serving that monster who tried to kill us all. Not after you survived this long, not after I just found out you are still breathing. And Kakarot is right, we managed to make a life free and undetected by Frieza here, you can too. You are safe with us."
Gine reached down and held up his gauntleted hands in both of hers as she begged. "So please... will you stay, son?"
"I..." Raditz tried to speak, but couldn't find the words to say. To him, this felt like a dream. A fantasy he would've considered naïve and foolish to entertain, but was now obtruding itself into actual reality. Could it be that he was finally free? Could he be home at last?...
Home. Family. Freedom... those things sounded so foreign to Raditz that he had a hard time wrapping his mind around them. Not even back on planet Vegeta did he feel such a warm and welcoming sensation of safety in those words. Planet Vegeta was an extremely hostile place where every Saiyan was out for themselves, to say nothing being under the rule of Frieza. But here on Earth? To be with people who actually cared about him, and to be free from Frieza's rule or Vegeta's and Nappa's ridicule. Free from the constant ridicule from Vegeta and Nappa? Free from the tormenting sights and sounds of killing so many people for a tyrant he despised? Could he really... find happiness here? It seemed too good to be true. But deep down, those were things he had always longed for. Wished for.
As he pondered this, all thoughts of what he originally came to Earth for and the possible outcomes of leaving were long forgotten and were replaced with... joy?
Raditz felt an unfamiliar sensation on the right side of his face, opposite of his scouter. A small twinge that curled his lip back into a crooked smile. The muscles in that simple act ached from disuse, but he didn't care. For this was the first time in his life he had ever felt something like this. Was this what happiness felt like?
He lifted a hand and touched his cheek, feeling the strange manifestation of this most tantalizing emotion that was overtaking him. Gine's eyes lit up at seeing Raditz in a way she had not seen him before. It was almost the same kind of bashful gesture that Kakarot would use, and made her want to giggle at how alike both of her boys were.
"So... what do you say?" Gine asked with a hopeful smile, thinking Raditz was just about to relent.
Raditz opened his mouth to speak...
"Aww, how revoltingly sweet." A gruff, static-laced voice from the scouter suddenly interrupted.
Gine, Kakarot, and Little Gohan starred wide-eyed at Raditz's scouter. Raditz himself nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden barking of Vegeta's voice in his ear.
"AH! Uh, Vegeta! Um...Uh..." Raditz stammered, his thoughts were a jumbled mess from being ripped out of the life-altering moment he was in and trying to think of something to say. "I-I-I...I thought you and Nappa had taken off already."
"We're about to, but don't you DARE think about bailing on us, Raditz. We overheard everything!"
Raditz cursed under his breath. He had entirely forgotten his scouter was on.
"Uh...NO! No, nononono, absolutely not, Vegeta! You didn't hear that at all, I-I wasn't about to do that. You know I wouldn't! I-uh...I wouldn't betray you or Lord Frieza, you know that!" He tired to bluff, but Vegeta already could hear through it.
"You're a pathetic liar, Raditz. You were about to abandon your post and-"
"NO! Vegeta, I'm not! I'm just..." Raditz thought quickly of an excuse to worm his way out. "...I'm just... evaluating the useless pleas of my brother and mother. That's all! Yeah, that's it! They are not willing to join us and therefore they are useless to us!" He said while nervously pretending to sound proud of his reconnaissance work, puffing up his chest as he spoke into his scouter.
"Then why don't you kill them?" Vegeta demanded.
Raditz froze, feeling like he fell into a trap. He looked over to his brother and mother watching him with alarm. Given their strength, he couldn't kill them if he wanted to, and right now he really didn't want to at all.
Kakarot looked on helplessly at seeing his brother in distress, he had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. Whoever he was talking to, sounded like they meant him and his family harm. Gine was as distraught as Raditz was. She had forgotten too that scouters were always on and picked up everything. There was also a flicker of recollection that struck Gine at the mention of "Vegeta". The Saiyan Prince was alive too?
"Uhhh... T-there is no need to do that, Vegeta. I can just fly back!" Raditz pleaded. It may be a harsh bargain to spare his family, but-
"You know we cannot allow that, Raditz. They are traitors to Lord Frieza and must be dealt with. You said so yourself that if they will not join us, we will destroy them. So we shall do just that as soon as we arrive."
Raditz hissed in frustration, then his pupils shrunk to dots in horror. He had earlier called for Vegeta and Nappa to come here!
"No! Please! Vegeta, I'm begging you to reconsider your need to travel here! This is just a waste of your time!"
"Oh? What's this? Little Raddy begging like always? Hahahaha!" The sound of Nappa's laughter over the channel made Raditz's blood boil in humiliation.
Soon it laughter died down before Nappa added again, "That just makes me want to go to Earth even more!"
"NO! Do NOT come here!" Raditz hastily yelled, but caught himself at realizing he should've chosen better words.
Vegeta almost made his glare felt over the radio. "I hope you realize you are committing treason for telling us to disregard our duty."
"NO! No! I mean..." Raditz tried to collect himself. His heart pounded in his ears as he tried to fight back panic. He HAD to stop Vegeta and Nappa from coming here. He cannot risk his long lost family being slaughtered to them, no matter what.
"Please, just... there's no reason to come here anymore. I'm begging you, Vegeta! Just call it off!"
"Listen here, you piece of low-class garbage..." Vegeta spat venomously. "We cannot let stand your brother's failure to conquer that planet and your mother's crimes of treason against Lord Frieza. I ought to just kill you for your disobedience to do as you were just told, and for you even considering going AWOL. So make a choice. You can either do your job and purge that planet of traitors, after which I will let your... "temporary lapse of judgement" slide, OR... you can die alongside your worthless family. What's it gonna be, Raditz?"
Desperation took hold of Raditz unlike any other corner he had ever been backed into. Nervous sweat fell down the side of Raditz's face, his mouth agape and wild eyes darting between his scouter and his family. He was making the biggest and most consequential decision he had ever made, and he never felt so scared in his life.
He had worked with Vegeta and Nappa all of his life, and he knew how ruthless they could be. They saw him as nothing more than a weak tag along, and Raditz was certain they would not hesitate to kill him for failing his mission, which he had gambled on in the first place and accepted his expendable role in it. Still, he was more than a little hurt that his "comrades" would turn against like this. And now, having seen his mother again and feeling a sense of being worth more than a pawn to someone else, he suddenly valued his life A LOT more than he did when he landed here.
His survival instincts were screaming at him to beg over the scouter for Vegeta's forgiveness, to do as he said by just telling his family to buzz off with their "peaceful life", disown them on the spot to save his own skin. But... he couldn't do it. There was a part of him that told him that he couldn't just turn his back on his family, regardless of the impossible odds of saving his brother and mother from being killed at the hands of his comrades. But even if he choose to run and fend for himself, he will be hunted down eventually and killed for sure.
So, it was either die running, or die here. Either way, his family would be condemned to the same fate as him. It was a trap that Raditz had no escape from, and the cornered beast within made him want to scream in helplessness.
One thing was certain however: he knew too much. Now that the truth of their home planet's destruction was at the hands of the very tyrant he served, he could not return to his old life under Frieza. And as Raditz tried decide his own fate, he briefly wondered if Vegeta had listened in on that too, or even if Frieza himself heard...
Whatever it may be, Raditz had hesitated too long and the silence was broken by Vegeta's grave tone.
"Very well then. You just signed your own death warrant."
"Ugh" A cold pit opened in Raditz's stomach and his chest constricted. No, no, no... this couldn't be happening!
"Nappa and I will make planetfall soon enough, so I suggest you run like you always do if you wish to live. But know this, Raditz: if I ever happen to see you again, I WILL give you the painful execution a coward like yourself deserves."
"V-Vegeta...I-" Raditz tried weakly to protest, but the prince interjected with finality.
"Goodbye, traitor."
"NO! VEGETA, WAIT!" Raditz screamed. But it was already too late, the commlink was dead.
He stood there in the sand with his hand trembling over the now useless scouter, he looked shell shocked.
Gine and Kakarot stood by frozen in place and not uttering a sound, trying to process what just happened. The sound of the gentle waves lapping against the tiny island and the seagulls cawing away had become very deafening.
Suddenly, Raditz yanked the scouter off of his face and crushed it in his grip, then let out a despairing scream that echoed across the island.
Gine ran to her eldest son in alarm, and placed her hands on his shoulders to steady him.
"Raditz, what is it?! What's wrong?!" She shrieked.
Raditz barred his teeth and clenched his fist so hard it drove the fragments of the scouter into the skin of his fist, drawing blood.
"I've doomed us all." He uttered grimly between huffs of enraged breathing.
Gine felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck at hearing what her eldest said. Whatever just transpired over that scouter, she knew trouble was coming, and that their time incognito on Earth was now over.
This was NOT how she expected this day to go.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy, two Saiyan space pods were leaving the atmosphere of a jungle planet orbiting a binary star system.
The planet had been ravaged. Entire continents of forests were burning, smoke enshrouded the atmosphere, and blackened craters dotted it's surface of where alien cities used to be, now blown to smithereens. There was nothing left here now, the planet was ready for sale on the Planet Trade Organization's market.
The two pods containing the Saiyans responsible for purging that world rocketed away, and were charting a course for the northern quadrant of the galaxy.
Onboard the lead pod, the short statured Saiyan with flame-like black hair, Prince Vegeta IV, made a practiced maneuver with his pod that he was sure his larger companion, General Nappa, would see from his.
They both knew what that meant. It was a quiet little gesture that meant to switch over to their pod's ship-to-ship frequency. It was a little something about the pods that only they knew.
Scouters were on at all times. They could never be turned off, or masked unless you really knew what you were doing. So Frieza and his men eavesdropped on everyone within the empire to let everyone know that their master and ruler was always listening to any treacherous plot against him. It what kept his men in line. However, unlike the scouters being monitored at all times by Frieza, the inter-vessel commlinks were a separate communications system that allowed the occupants of the craft to talk to their companions in the event their scouters failed. But what not many people with the Frieza Force knew, Vegeta was thankful for, was that these lines were untapped so they could speak freely.
Vegeta, with care, removed his scouter and placed a gloved thumb over the microphone hole as Nappa did the same in his pod. With a few pressing of buttons, Nappa's voice filled the cabin of Vegeta's pod.
"Whad'ya think, Vegeta?" Asked Nappa over the intercom.
Vegeta didn't answer. The intensity of his eyes were focused on some distant point far out into the void of space. His mind was in violent thought, and soon his eyes flared with rage.
"THAT BASTARD!" Vegeta yelled at the top of his lungs. It took all of his self-control to keep himself from punching through the siding of his pod.
"Same here." Remarked Nappa. "I can't believe Raditz just bailed on us like that!"
Vegeta whipped around towards his companion's pod outside the forward window, as if to shout back at him. "That's not just it, Nappa!"
"Oh, uh..." Nappa caught himself and tried to correct his words, he knew better than to fumble in front of the Saiyan Prince. "...that... there are other Saiyans alive out there?"
Vegeta's eye twitched. He knew his big bald friend was not very bright, and that he needed to be reminded of the more important things from time to time. Still, it infuriated him to no end that the truth of their home world's fate was not the first thing that the second-highest ranking Saiyan left was concerned about.
"NO! Don't you get it?! It's true that Frieza destroyed our planet afterall! I KNEW IT!"
The line from Nappa was silent, as he for sure now realizing what his superior's words meant.
Vegeta was nearly blind with rage now. He always knew Frieza had despised his kind, and used them like the Saiyans used other races they conquered. But they at least had an agreement to be allies in their quest for universal domination. Now, with Raditz's mother being the one eye-witness alive that attested to what he thought was a hunch all these years, it was too much for the prince to bear finally knowing for sure.
"He killed my father! He robbed me of my destiny to rule our world as the next king! HE LIED TO US!" Vegeta said with such hatred, clenching gloved fists hard against the armrest of his jump seat and shattering it.
"So... what are we gonna do?" Nappa asked hesitantly.
Vegeta collected himself. He had to calm down or risk inadvertently destroying his own pod from his rising energy.
"We'll stick with the plan." He declared. "We'll travel to this "Earth", and play along with our little excursion to purge it if Frieza is listening in, and he most likely will. And then we'll deal with Raditz and his... family." He spat that last word with contempt.
"You mean... kill them? The power levels of fourteen and sixteen thousand that Raditz reported?"
Vegeta could almost smell the fear from Nappa's voice. It was bad enough that Raditz would turn tail like he did, but it disgusted him even more that his most trusted partner would show cowardice now in the face of such a task as facing stronger opponents. And they haven't even gotten there yet! It was pathetic that he would forget his Saiyan pride like that. For the gods' sake, they were the most feared warriors in the universe! They backed down from no challenge!
"Perhaps." Said the prince. "Unless they can be... persuaded."
"How we gonna do that?"
"Leave that up to me, Nappa. They will join us once I speak to them. I'm sure of it."
"What if they still won't join us?" Said Nappa, still not sounding convinced.
Vegeta smiled evilly. "That still won't matter. I, the Prince of all Saiyans, would relish the challenge if that were to be the outcome!" He held out an open fist and closed as if he were crushing his enemies in the palm of his hand. He loved those little strokes of his ego.
"We've got some saibamen left, correct?" Vegeta asked.
Nappa was confused. "Uh, yeah. Six total. Why?"
Vegeta closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do the math, you idiot! With six of them, six of Raditz's power with our own, four-thousand and eighteen-thousand combined, we can take on those fools."
Silence on the other line, then Vegeta could imagine a light flickering on in Nappa's thick head. "Yeah... yeah I think we can do it. Sure!"
"Of course we can, Nappa. We're super elites, no one will stand in our way." Vegeta snickered, his lip curling back into a maniacal smile.
"YEAH! Let's go get 'em!"
"Very well then. Lets." Said Vegeta before cutting off the clandestine commlink and putting his scouter back on.
With a few more inputs into the control panel, he locked in the coordinates to the little-known star system that harbored Earth. Then the pod, along with Nappa's, activated it's space drive that would sent the Saiyans rocketing towards their targeted little planet. At this speed, it should take them about eleven months to reach Earth.
As Vegeta prepared the pod's stasis mode, he privately contemplated what he overheard from Raditz's scouter.
There were mentions of a hybrid Saiyan child there too, from Raditz's brother rutting with the native Earthlings. He also thought of the fact that Raditz's mother, this Gine, was possibly the last Saiyan woman in existence. These things in mind, Vegeta was already imagining the possibilities of establishing a new saiyan colony on Earth. As much as it revolted Vegeta, the fact that mixing bloods with the human species could possibly bring the numbers of Saiyans back up was an exciting prospect. That once they conquered that planet, they could raise an entire army of half-breeds with Raditz's mother as his new queen by his side, whether she complied or not.
It may not be as grand, or as pure-blooded, as the empire that he was destined to rule on his old home world, but this could be an unprecedented opportunity to begin an active rebellion against Frieza.
One thing didn't make sense to him though. Like, how did such low-class trash like Kakarot and Gine get as strong as super elites? It went against everything the Saiyans knew about strength and their places in society.
However that was possible for low-class warriors to acquire strength beyond what they were endowed with, it stoked Vegeta's intrigue. He wondered if that he could acquire that boost, whatever it was, in strength too; afterall he was the most powerful Saiyan alive, it had to work on him. Perhaps he could become stronger than any Saiyan before. Perhaps... even achieve the level only told of in legend. He could become a Super Saiyan...
That prospect of unlimited power and achieving such legendary status got Vegeta's blood running in excitement.
In a way, the cowardly fool Raditz accomplished his mission. He had a found a lush planet for which they could potential restart the Saiyan race, tap an unknown source of power that could ascend Vegeta to his rightful place as the strongest being in the universe, and now with the truth of his namesake planet's destruction, Vegeta had more incentive to overthrow Frieza. The answer lay on Earth.
So he will play the part of going there to execute Raditz and conquering the planet that Kakarot failed to do. And he will enact his plan once they arrived.
The feeling of exultation was the last thing Vegeta felt before the stasis mode kicked in, and he fell into a deep slumber with dreams of final revenge and victory...
A/N: Hope you liked this chapter. It serves as another major departure from MasakoX's timeline, and demonstrates how even the smallest details can change EVERYTHING. And you shall see what I have in store down the line ;)
See you next chapter!