Duty

Chapter 2: The Renegade

A/N: Second chapter! Belated to say the least! Hope you enjoy! AND thank you to Lionheart261 (who writes many a good dbz fic, like Hermit or Forgotten Son) for looking over this chapter! I appreciate that!

Above the stained, muggy green veneer that the planet Ysa kept as an atmosphere, four dots, arranged in a V-formation, steadily flew towards the planet's surface. As they crossed the border between pure space and the upper reaches of Ysa's thick, polluted skies, superheated air began to take the color of orange, shrouding them in a tapestry that trailed past them. What was such a fiery, churning approach for the four occupants of those pods- when the walls of their cockpits grew scalding and could singe their flesh from the slightest touch, and the smell of smoke filled that one and only room of their ships- would, to any person on the ground, appeared as nothing more than a twinkle of red against a darkened and plodding sky.

Far below the secluded scars, beneath the thick bands of green and submerged in air as thick as poison, a dirty man with short, black-and-gray hair sat back on a piece of stained and square-shaped rubble. More rubble like it was strewn around him, ranging from chunks no larger than his hand to massive, mile-long sections that divided and bent the land with their weight and width. The air hung heavy here.

The man, who was absentmindedly fiddling with a device affixed over the left side of his head, turned his attention towards the sky. Green… with four specks of red. From its spot over his left eye, his scouter, worn and ancient, chirped and buzzed.

'About time.' As he stood, the man's tail, usually kept wrapped around the waist of his cracked and bleached tunic of random, decayed, and discarded pieces of armor, uncoiled and twitched behind him. Sweat dampened his face and neck.

He had dreamt of this day for more than thirty years. One way or another, he would soon be free of that dream.

In one of the ships spearing through the sky, locked into a short, rocky descent to the planet's surface that felt longer than it actually was, its occupant waited.

'Remember,' a voice buzzed into his left ear. His scouter on that side of his head must have reactivated at some point during planetary entry. 'This man and his group have killed numerous elites in a single go. He or anyone else is not to be engaged alone. Once we land, we're to meet up and pursue him as a unified group. No smartassery.'

'Concerned for us?' another voice, thick with amusement, said.

'For the others? No. For you? Yes.'

'Hah,' Vegeta, trapped within a space just big enough to fit him sitting, laughed. His voice sounded odd and muffled to his ears. 'Hah, hah. Good one, Cagoria.'

'It's good advice,' a third voice said.

'Such a kiss-up, Vegeta,' the amused voice said. 'It's a true mystery as to why you get to make as many snide comments as you want.'

Unseen by anyone, Vegeta's face soured. 'It's a true mystery as to why I make them,' Vegeta mocked back. 'Perhaps it is because I work with a child.'

'You've both made mistakes becoming of children before,' Cagoria, the first voice, said sharply. 'Don't make me babysit you today. Cagoria out.' The click of someone disconnecting from their shared channel sounded into their ears. Vegeta took a deep, angry breath.

'We can hear you huffing,' the third voice said, before Vegeta heard again a click.

'Well,' the second voice said, 'I'd say that was a win for me. Baited enough dumb malice out of you that Cagoria was forced to reprimand you. Wouldn't you agree, Vegeta?'

The words echoed in his ears. With a snarl, Vegeta swiped a hand across the side of his scouter and disconnected himself. Around him, the ship still rattled and rolled with the violence of atmospheric entry.

Damn him! Damn that sniveling, infantile idiot! Damn you, Kakarot!

Even thinking of his name reignited his hatred and filled his mind with a hundred little things he'd like to do to that clown, if- if they weren't bound together. Vegeta sighed. It wouldn't do to indulge his imagination. They fought together on the battlefield, and would continue to do so until Cagoria told him not to.

Light flared from the top of the room. The ship was beginning its landing sequence.

If I'm lucky, he will die here. What I would give to be rid of that troll...

Among the four ships, shaped into spherical balls with a single hatch, the sleekest and most polished of them all landed first, scoring a trench down the side of a slope. When the pod's movement ceased, the hatch hissed and swung open through lines of heat and smoke. Without any break in her movement, a strong, muscular, and well-proportioned woman surged out of the ship. She had shoulder-length black hair with silver streaks running through it pulled back and tied behind her head, and was adorned in black-as-night armor segmented by gray lines that covered her torso. In the upper right part of her torso, three parallel, thin, and white lines were scored diagonally towards the center of her body. A dark-gray jumpsuit clothed her arms and legs arms and legs, and white gloves and boots covered the ends of her limbs.

The twilight of the planet's surface- created by whatever light could get through its thick and dense atmosphere- also showed a feature of hers that the darkness of the pod could not. A deep scar, healed-over and old, ran in a line from the tip of her chin along the edge of her jawline to just beneath her right ear. She scratched at it and surveyed the horizon to her left.

Ships similar to her own strode through the sky and impacted the ground, throwing up recognizable plumes of gray-brown dust. With these in view, she set off towards them.

Once near, she landed atop a hill overlooking all three landing sites and waited. The first one out of the dust, another woman armored and dressed the same as her, albeit while in this apparel looked skinnier and less muscular than her and had shorter black hair, climbed up the hill while fiddling with a flimsy-looking scouter wobbling over his left eye.

One of Cagoria's eyebrows lifted. 'Scouter giving you trouble, Sashe?' she asked.

'Yes,' Sashe replied curtly. She finished climbing the hill and stopped at Cagoria's side.

'Gave up?' Cagoria asked.

Sashe looked at her, and glanced away. 'Yep.'

Cagoria smiled and turned her attention to the two remaining dust plumes. 'How long do you think it'll take for them to get out?'

'They're always slow. You know this.'

'That I do.'

Their conversation stopped there. Cagoria was pleased. Sashe was, despite her usual reticence, always a reassuring presence at her side. Cagoria appreciated not needing to micromanage every member of her team and having confidence in the competency of at least one person under her. With Sashe, she got both.

'There's one,' Sashe said, pointing a finger to the right. 'There.'

Cagoria swiveled her attention from the other plume to the right. A jolt of adrenaline ran through her body. She suppressed it.

A man, with a chaotic mane of hair that somehow culminated to a magnificent spiky shape, strode up the hill, glancing between them at the ground underneath his feet. Cagoria found herself staring at the outline his jumpsuit made on his body. She wrenched her gaze away and chided herself. There was a time and place for that.

'Problem, Cagoria?' Kakarot asked, a slight smile on his face, once he was up the hill and saw that she was quite obviously looking away from him.

'A smile,' Sashe observed. 'There's always some kind of smile on your face, Kakarot. Could be she's sick of seeing it.'

Cagoria laughed, and turned her head back towards them. Her expression was sturdy. 'To use Vegeta's words, a "clown" would do that.'

'Oh?' Kakarot cocked his head. 'He's said that of me?'

'Whenever you're not around.'

Sashe glanced between them, frowned, and looked off into an altogether different direction. In the process, she spotted the last of their team. 'He's coming up now,' she said, catching the attention of Cagoria and Kakarot.

Under their gazes, a man, shorter than Kakarot and Cagoria and just a few inches taller than Sashe, trudged up the hill. He was almost as muscular as Cagoria, had only slightly more reasonable hair- which pointed up and above him like a flame- than Kakarot, and was nearly as closed with his body language as Sashe was. But, somehow, Vegeta was altogether different from the sum of these parts.

When he reached the top of the hill, Vegeta examined them. 'The hatch to my pod seized up,' he said. 'But I am not the type to give excuses. So disregard what I just said.'

'Funny,' Kakarot commented. 'My pod hatch seized up, too. Still managed to beat you here, though.'

'Did it, though?'

Cagoria had had her fill of bickering on the descent. 'You all ready?' she asked.

Vegeta threw one more glare at Kakarot and turned to Cagoria. Kakarot, with much more subdued glee, did the same. Cagoria was satisfied.

'Good.' she said. 'So- Vegeta, take point. My scouter says the target is just a few miles out and hasn't moved since we arrived. Probably means that they're waiting for us, and it definitely means that they've got a trap in mind. So we're going to walk, take it slow, four-point formation, with me in the rear and Kakarot and Sashe in the center. And remember,' she stressed, hardening her gaze. 'We don't separate. Got that?'

Steel-faced, they nodded back.

'Alright. Let's go.'

They were deep into a dense area of ruin when they were forced to stop. They had all been briefed that a failed purge had taken place on this planet- some kind of chemical weapon had detonated, knocking the planet off its axis and screwing with the planet's surface conditions. The air became thick and foul, and scarce amounts of light reached the surface. Temperatures ranged drastically depending on the whims of weather and time.

None of this was a concern to them; they had trained in some of the harshest planetary environments in the known galaxy. All the lonely rubble strewn around from ruined metropolises- and the problems that created with advancing in a steady, calculated manner - was an annoyance, however.

'Okay,' Cagoria said as soon as they grouped together. 'We need to do something about this visibility. We can't fight Frieza-knows how many Saiyans in a maze. Any ideas?'

'Blow it all up,' Kakarot suggested. 'Nothing of worth here, anyway.'

'Not a good use of ki,' Cagoria said, shooting down Kakarot's idea. 'Not at least until we know we're facing the bulk of them.'

'Take to the skies?' Sashe offered.

'They could pick us off from their hiding spots,' Vegeta said dismissively. 'Shower the sky with ki until we're forced down again.'

Cagoria leaned back and scratched along her scar. 'Vegeta?'

'...We could back out of the city and wait for them to come to us.'

Kakarot snorted. 'That's the best you got?'

'I would ask if you had any better ideas, but as we already know, you don't.'

'This isn't the time for-' Cagoria halted. Her gaze was trained on her scouter. 'Many signals moving,' she said. 'Moving towards us. They're close!'

The sound of rubble shifting, coming from every direction, filled the air.

'Saiyans!' Cagoria roared, before pivoting around and slamming a punch into someone charging at her. The woman's chest buckled underneath hers, and she flopped to the ground, dead. 'Easy enough!'

'Just like the briefing said!' Kakarot replied, whipping his ki-wrapped leg beneath an opponent that had run up to him and snapping a leg in two. As the Saiyan fell to the ground, crying, Kakarot stepped forward and enveloped him with a ki blast. 'Just as weak, too!'

As the four of them grouped together, dispatching the wave of ragged-looking Saiyans that rushed them, they failed to notice a figure hovering in the air above them. As the most well-armored of his group, he crinkled and rustled as he oriented his body to the ground and pointed a hand down towards them. When an attack leaped from him, it was as ungainly and rickety as his appearance, and appeared to snake down at the four of them with no apparent control.

Which, of course, was planned. Five feet above them, this seemingly haphazard attack split off into four separate beams, and smacked into every one of the team's scouters. Sparks and metal flew from their heads as every one of them hopped back and glanced to the sky.

'CONTINGE!' Cagoria barked, moving even further back and pressing her back against Vegeta's. 'CONTINGE!'

Sashe and Kakarot backpedaled and did the same as Cagoria, forming a square with their literal backs to each other. In unison, they clasped hands and lifted their arms, surrounding themselves in a mighty combined yellow aura.

Another wave of Saiyans charged at them. When their attackers came within striking distance, Cagoria led Vegeta, Kakarot, and Sashe in pumping their arms down. The ground around them exploded for miles around

An immeasurable amount of dust kicked into the air, turning low-visibility conditions into no-visibility conditions. Coughing, Cagoria held out her arms and looked at them. She couldn't see the tips of her fingers.

'Everyone accounted for?' She called out. Nearby grunts answered her. 'Good,' she continued. 'So… everyone move towards my voice, and…'

Cagoria trailed off. The sound of many feet moving, smacking themselves across the ground, hit them. In the dust-filled hell they now occupied, noise bounced and sat in the air, making it impossible for them to determine if they were facing five Saiyans or five hundred.

'Hold!...' Cagoria urged, digging her feet into the ground. 'We must have thinned most of them with our previous attack- we're over the hump!'

The aural chaos grew louder. If anyone from her team was trying to reach her by the sound of her voice, she was unhearable now. 'HOLD!...'

The blows of battle reached their ears. The Saiyans threw themselves on them again.

0o0o0

Somewhere in the brown haze, Sashe spotted a recognizable set of armor streak past her. 'Hey!' she yelled, as she knocked a Saiyan's head to the ground with a right hook. 'Come back!'

She dashed through across the ground, trailing a person-sized shape in the dust. Her pursuit led her over across rubble and ruin, and stopping atop what used to be a low-rise apartment, she abruptly jumped back.

A fist swung through the spot she was standing in, leaving a streak of dust in its wake. Lithe, Sashe flattened herself to the ground and spun, whirling her legs around her in a circle. She felt her shins hit her opponent, and she heard something bang down the side of the building just after. Springing up, she ran over to the top's edge. Got you now!

Past the edge, there was nothing but dust… and no sign of who she had been pursuing. Thinking quick, she used her aura and flushed it through the air, pushing away dust and debris and making the area around her visible. She still couldn't find him.

Damn… missed him! She glanced around. Dust she had just pushed away was moving back. Damn! Missed everyone! He led me away! And I don't have a scouter to help me get back!

The vibrations of someone moving away from her, no doubt caused by heavy stomps to the ground, alerted Cagoria. Not one of mine! They wouldn't dare retreat! She swung to her right, spotted a vague shape in the dust, and throttled the crackling ki charging in her right hand. 'Leaving so soon!?' she yelled, releasing her attack.

In the deadened air, the blast carved a visible path through the dust- and, because of this, right before impact, Cagoria recognized Kakarot's back. Her heart dropped and she started running forward even before the attack landed.

The wind and energy released from the blast buffeted but did not deter her, as she forced herself against the prevailing pressure until her will broke through and the forces opposing her died out. Once through, she sank to her knees beside a prone Kakarot. Concern caused her hands to fly towards his back. 'Oh, dear Frieza- Kakarot!-'

She froze as soon as she saw Kakarot had his head turned to his left, was looking at her with his left eye, and was smiling. 'Invoking Emperor Frieza's name, huh? You're that concerned about me?'

Like a mask sliding into place, her composure immediately returned. 'Good to see you can still take a pounding from me,' she said, standing. She furrowed her brow. 'I- wait. Sorry. I meant to say "take a punch-'

Kakarot sprinted to his feet and moved closer to Cagoria. His face was mere inches away from hers. 'Not sure about that,' he said, his hands hovering close to hers. 'I think-'

'Not the time,' she said, taking one long step backward. Her entire posture and expression was unchanged from the instant she had realized Kakarot was fine. 'Really not the time.' She looked away from him and scanned their surroundings.

No longer under her gaze, Kakarot pouted. 'But-'

'You're never to speak of this,' she said without looking at him. 'Not with anyone, and especially not with me. What we have is nothing more than what it is, and nothing more than what we are. Got it?'

Kakarot breathed. 'Yes.'

'Good.' She paused. 'Now help me find someone I can punch.'

The dust drew thicker together with every passing second. The sounds of battle became distant as what he could see steadily winnowed. At the expense of linking up with his team, Vegeta was forced to heighten his senses and attune himself to his environment to prevent anyone from sneaking up on him. So far, he had been right to do so. The score of dead Saiyan bodies at his feet was proof of that.

'The Second of the Vanguard, Vegeta…'

The voice had come from nearby, close enough to startle Vegeta when he heard it. I should have heard footsteps before I heard someone speak… Hmm…

'Prince…'

The second sentence, uttered from- from what Vegeta could tell- the same spot, allowed him to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. He advanced through the dust until an outline of a man- the man from earlier who destroyed their scouters- appeared. 'You have something to say to me before I kill you?' Vegeta said gruffly.

The outline stepped forward, and man it represented revealed himself. Besides him rubbing his shins, he appeared unbothered and unharmed- which means our earlier attack didn't even touch him. Vegeta narrowed his eyes. I'll have to be careful with this one.

'I doubt that you know me,' the man said, stopping several feet away from Vegeta. 'So, in an ironic twist of fate, I must introduce myself to you.' He stepped back, dropped to one knee, and hung his head to the ground. 'I am Gerkin, adviser, general, and sworn soldier of the deceased King Vegeta of the Saiyans.'

Vegeta's expression lifted. 'Gerkin?' he repeated. 'The old royal? I've heard of you- you're been on the run longer than any other Saiyan.' He clenched his hands into fists. 'It will be right by my Lord and my team to bring back your corpse.'

Gerkin appraised him. He looked disappointed. 'Yes, you would think that. They've determined everything you've ever thought, haven't they? Frieza and his lackeys, that is. Your perception of the galaxy is warped.' Gerkin paused. 'You don't recognize me? From long before now?'

'I recognize your face from every wanted hologram in the galaxy,' Vegeta shot back.

'That is to be expected,' Gerkin agreed. 'But I was there when you were born, Prince Vegeta. I saw your father watch over you… your father, King Vegeta. He named you after himself, you know.'

'Are you being serious?' Vegeta smirked unabashedly. 'King Vegeta is my father?' he said, barking laughter. 'And I'm a Prince? I can see now why you've personally bombed countless planets to their bedrock only to move on without gaining anything- you're quite clearly insane- really, in claiming this, you might be the most unhinged Saiyan I've ever met!'

'You speak of actions that were necessary,' Gerkin said without affect. 'Saiyans once were conquerors, decimators, and did such at their whim. It is important to remind both ourselves and others of this fact.'

Vegeta laughed again. 'Your race's treachery is the stuff of legends, old man,' he said. 'Even now, the remnants of your people pop up around the galaxy like a rash, flaunting the authority of Lord Frieza before being smothered again by people like me.' With evident pleasure, Vegeta brandished a smirk. 'Every time that happens, some of you die and there are fewer of you the next time around. There is nothing more faithful I can do for Lord Frieza than to kill you and every single person of your wretched race.'

Gerkin sharpened his expression. 'Why is it that you have the name Vegeta?' he questioned, staring into Vegeta's eyes. 'Why do you have the same name as a former leader of the Saiyans? Can you so easily dismiss my truth? Vegeta is a Saiyan name.'

With easy grace, Vegeta pressed his eyes closed and smiled. 'There is a story to that. A story that, of course, you are not entitled to. Besides, if I really was a Saiyan- where is my tail?' He opened his eyes and shot a knowing look over to Gerkin. 'I thought every Saiyan had one.'

To this point, Gerkin was mute. 'Tails can be removed. They can be-'

'Yes, yes,' Vegeta replied, 'I know all about how they can regrow after being lost. I've seen enough imprisoned Saiyans to see that process first-hand,' he said, smiling. 'You'll have to take my word, because I'm not one to unclothe during a fight, but if you ever took a look at my back, you'd find, well- I have no such spot where a tail even could grow. It is smooth skin, with no scars or blemishes.'

For the first time in their conversation, Gerkin's expression darkened. 'You're lying! You just don't want to accept the truth! You can't-'

A wave of wind hit him, staggering him. It was followed by stronger and longer blasts, riding out from Vegeta like the tides.

'I tire of you,' he said, summoning his ki and whipping it into a purple-tinged storm around him. 'You are not the first Saiyan to try and plague my mind with doubts about what I know to be true. People have mistaken me for a Saiyan all my life- but I am driven to prove that I am nothing like one. I serve Lord Frieza honorably and loyally, as do I serve my team. You are a renegade, nothing better than scum. It is about time!-' Vegeta's voice rose, lifting into the air and striking down like lightning, '-that I wipe you from the face of the galaxy!'

Gerkin had expected this. Slaves born in caves could not be convinced to move towards light- they must be forced. His aura exploded away from him, streaking pink and purple onto the ground.

Ground crunched as Vegeta launched from the ground, flying toward Gerkin with one fist cocked back. When he threw it, slammed resoundingly against his guard and threw up a wall of energy into the air above him. Vegeta smirked. He had felt it hit true-

Before Vegeta knew what was happening, he was flipped around into the air above. Gerkin, charging after him, rammed several blows into his back, stunning him, and finished by flying above Vegeta and throwing a double-handed ki-wrapped fist into Vegeta's gut. The blow sent out a fierce shockwave and flung Vegeta down.

He righted himself feet away from the ground and turned his gaze to the sky. 'You're stronger than I gave you credit for!' he shouted up at Gerkin. 'Stronger than the average Saiyan, at least.'

Gerkin did nothing but give him a disapproving look and vanished.

Vegeta's eyes widened as a last-minute sound of air whooshing past his head tipped him off to an incoming attack. He spun and caught an arm at its elbow, a fist at its end, with both hands, bending backward to avoid being hit. Straining, with his gray-and-black hair matting his face, Gerkin pressed against his grip. 'This is for your own good, my Prince!' he yelled, before opening the hand of the arm Vegeta held.

A small ki blast was held in his palm, sparkling and spinning with power. With both arms gripped around the rest of Gerkin's arm, Vegeta was completely defenseless. I couldn't tell he had gathered any ki! I'm at a massive disadvantage without my scouter!

As a last-ditch move, he began crouching to the ground to evade the imminent attack. Gerkin anticipated this, and moved forward, forcing the angle of his attack down alongside Vegeta's movement. In the end, Vegeta had just made him an easier target.

The blast launched, and the world closed off to him.

For a terrible length of time, Gerkin had thought he had killed the son of the man he had failed to protect- which, if true, would have consigned him even deeper into the hellish afterlife that awaited him. After the attack had flown from his hand, the land in front of him was consumed with light and energy. Vegeta's grip on his arm broke, and the last he saw of the Prince was him hurtling backward into a massive conflagration of ki. Gerkin stood there on the precipice, as smoke and dust billowed and pulsed out from the blast zone in front of him, for what felt like an eternity.

The dust cleared. The land before him had been scooped away in a cone. With evident concern, he checked his ancient scouter, then his vision, and finally the neck of the Prince. Each one showed that, while weakened, unconscious, and marred by the blast, Vegeta was still alive. Immeasurable relief flooded him.

Not today… not yet… but I must move quickly. Gerkin used his scouter to check on the other members of the team Vegeta had arrived with. They were far away enough to be of no immediate concern. One day, he and his people would have to do the same to them as they planned to do to the Prince. But Vegeta was the priority, and as the son of a martyred King, he would command immeasurable consensus and unity from the cells scattered across the galaxy. Perhaps, eventually, he might supplant… a thought for another time. Addressing his and others' personal grievances was not a priority now, nor would it be one in the future. Now was the time to overthrow Frieza's Empire, and work without distraction towards Saiyan dominance of the galaxy. Vegeta will be critical, in all of this...

Gerkin thought on that future, and more importantly, the immediate one. 'It will take time,' he thought aloud, 'especially with so many of my men dead here. Won't be able to do our usual scatter method to get back to the Fringe, but disappearing should still be possible.' Gerkin crouched down and gripped Vegeta by his right arm in preparation to lift him onto his back. 'Only thing I need to figure out is how to keep him locked up and quiet during this… It's going to be a while before we finish moving through Empire space.' Gerkin pulled on Vegeta's weight. 'Might have to keep hitting him, actually-'

His would-be captive's eyes flew open. Instantaneously, Vegeta pulled on the same arm Gerkin had tried to lift him with and surged upward. In the same motion, he swung around his other arm; one finger stuck out from its hand.

'DIE!' Vegeta screamed, as a small ball of purple ki left his hand and burrowed into Gerkin's neck. The old royal made a gurgling sound and loosened his grip on Vegeta as the attack dug through his neck and exited out the other side. Crimson blood spurted from both holes and he collapsed forward, trembling, into Vegeta's arms.

As the Saiyan's motion came to a deathly stop, Vegeta watched the man repeatedly try to turn his head to the side look back at him. He never did overcome gravity, however, and he died with his head drooping towards the ground. With the coil loosed, Vegeta released him from his arms.

Another corpse at his feet, broken. Vegeta spat. '...Fool.'

The three others arrived piecemeal, each one coming from a different direction. Cagoria, the last one to arrive, strode over to the dead man's body and nudged it with her foot. 'Dead is dead,' she muttered. 'He put up much up a fight?'

'He tried,' Vegeta said, glancing down at the body and back up to Cagoria. She was staring at him. 'In between spouting nonsense, specifically. In the end, though, he let his guard down. Killing him was easy.'

Cagoria arched one of her brows and half her mouth. 'That so? You'll have to regale us at some point.'

'What'd he say?' Kakarot asked from the side. 'The nonsense, that is.'

Vegeta swung towards him. 'Drabble,' he said dismissively. 'Exactly what you'd expect a crazed Saiyan to say.'

'Well, what did he say?'

'I don't care to repeat it,' Vegeta said, irritated. 'And why are you so curious?'

Kakarot flashed a grin. 'I'm amused by the nonsense of lunatics. Hearing you speak it would be doubly entertaining.'

Before Vegeta could snarl back, Cagoria turned her back on Vegeta and the corpse, and assertively walked past Kakarot and Sashe. She didn't spare a glance at either of them. 'The Saiyans are dead. We did what was asked of us,' she replied. 'And that doesn't include asking questions. So, if we're done here- I want to go back to base and take a long shower.' She threw a stern glare at them. 'Sort it out between the three of you who takes the corpse. Or I'll choose for you.'

Kakarot groaned. 'Any reason why we didn't take Broly's pod with us so that none of us would need to share a trip back with a corpse?...'

Cagoria threw a look back at Kakarot. Something glinted in her eyes. 'Not a one.'

She paused at the top of the hill, hesitated, but said nothing, and lifted into the air. The thick air lingering on the planet's surface swallowed her.

Kakarot squinted after her as she flew away. 'She was in a mood.'

'Shut it, Kakarot,' Vegeta snapped, whirling and stomping over to Kakarot. 'I don't care for your wheedling behind her back! If there's something about her you feel the need to lament about, you should damn well tell her and not madden the rest of us with it!'

Off to the side, Sashe glanced over to Vegeta, made a face, and coughed.

Kakarot, smirking, never took his gaze from Vegeta. 'I'm pretty sure I was doing that…' he said. Nonetheless, he took a step back from Vegeta. 'But point taken. In the future, I'll direct my criticism in-person- and on that note, what's got your jumpsuit all tied up in a knot?' Kakarot's smirk broadened. 'Must have been something that corpse said, huh? Poor Vegeta. All riled up by a common thug.'

The space between them, as little as there was, grew even smaller as Vegeta followed after Kakarot and stepped closer. Kakarot was almost a foot taller than him, but that didn't stop Vegeta from lording over him with as much malice and distaste as he could muster.

'Kakarot,' Sashe spoke up, placing a hand on his shoulder. She had strode over in the past few seconds. 'You should lay off. Seriously.' She looked over to Vegeta. 'If you're intent on fighting… wait until we get back. Not here.' She frowned. 'Cagoria isn't the only one who wants to get back.'

Kakarot scoffed. 'Was never my intent,' he claimed. 'Didn't want to start a fight. Just… having fun.' He waited to see if Vegeta would react. It seemed that the storm had passed, however- the usual reticence and cold composure Vegeta displayed was present again. Pity.

'Well.' Kakarot spun, and waved at them with the back of his hand as he walked off. 'See you back at base.' Vegeta and Sashe were left alone with the corpse. They noted that Kakarot hadn't offered to take the corpse.

Sashe, arms tucked underneath each other, turned to Vegeta. 'You'll take him?' she asked, spoken more as a confirmation than a request.

Vegeta had moved back over to the corpse. 'I killed him,' he said. 'Might as well guard my credit for that.'

'I don't think anyone would try and take the credit from you.'

'Mm.'

Sashe stared at Vegeta's back. He continued to stand over the corpse, like a tower looking out over the surrounding land.

'Leave soon,' she said, before moving off and out out of sight.

One of Vegeta's hands crept up to the armor wrapping around his torso. It was black and featureless, smooth to the touch, except for one part. His gloved fingers traced three thin, parallel, and white scored into the upper right section of his armor.

Those marks meant nothing, and that meant everything to Vegeta.

A/N: Fun fact! There's one paragraph in this chapter that was written 9 months ago! Can you guess what it is?

Reviews (many months late, lol):

theAsh0: If you want to talk about the set-up 9 months on- sure!

BlueHorizon48: I prefer to write with the most ease possible. So I like using apostrophes for quotations (which is how books are formatted in Canada/UK, though I'm not from those two places) because it means I don't have to press shift every time I need to open and close a line of dialogue.

Guest: There have been many more updates of Strength of Many since your review, so I hope you're still getting some joy from my reading!

Legendary-AI: Looooot of what you asked will be addressed with time. This is a RAFO story to unveil what the heck happened in this universe.

Spades321: To answer what I can from your question- two confirmed OCs so far in the form of Cagoria and Sashe.

Guest (#2): Next is here! Enjoy!

Ultimate Black Ace: And a merry thanks to the review that kickstarted my interest in this story again (and made me do some massive planning MOVES). To address your points, in this chapter you got or had hints towards:

-Some people (maybe Saiyans?) interacting with known Saiyans.

-Vegeta's sense of selt and position within the group

-Frieza's relationship with the group

Can't answer any other of the points you mentioned. This is a RAFO story if I've ever made one. But I can say that I've thought a lot on every point you made and a bunch of other stuff I've planned, so rest assured that no stone will stay unturned and unexplained!