Chapter 4: Bardock's Grief (Redone)
Goku and the others continued the long trek down the cool corridor. Tien and Goku were at the lead, while Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo all stayed in a straight line behind them. Tien abruptly came to a halt, along with Goku.
"What is it this time?" Vegeta asked irritably. Just as he said that, a loud roar shook the cave, throwing them all off balance.
"What the hell was that!?" Vegeta shouted.
"What do you think?" Goku snapped back at hin, just as another roar shook the cave. A giant beast with rose-colored fur, black horns, red eyes, a spear-like tail, and teeth that came to razor sharp points loomed before them. Its growl was so deep and reverberating it caused nearby rocks to fall and crumble.
"What the hell is that?" Goku whispered.
Before anyone could contemplate on it's species, the creature snapped at them, snarling as it missed Tien by an inch. Tien narrowed his eyes, annoyed.
"Why do they always go after me first!? Why can't they go after Goku for once?" Tien muttered under his breath as he dodged out of the way of another attack.
The creature hissed and showered Tien with stones from a nearby boulder with a powerful swipe of its claws. He covered his face in an attempt to protect himself from the sharp stones. The creature let out a laughingly sated noise and bit Tien on the leg. That thing is relentless. But, why go after Tien? What did he ever do to invoke this much aggression? Goku thought, puzzled.
He was broken quickly out of his thoughts as the beast threw Tien into a wall, knocking him out. The team gasped and ran over to their unconscious teammate. Blood welled from a huge bite in his leg. The beast walked towards them again, that same deadly glint in its eyes. Goku angrily turned to the beast. It hissed and began to lunge at Goku.
"Ka - Me - Ha - Me - Ha!" Goku shouted, quickly preparing his powerful ki blast.
The beast hissed and intended to shoot it back, not before squealing pitifilly in pain and running away, a large burn on its hind legs. Goku smiled slightly then, before he remembered Tien on the floor. He ran over to his friend who had just regained conciseness.
"Goku, move on without me, I'll be fine. Come back for me later," Tien said weakly. His eyes glazing over from the blood loss.
"No, we won't leave you here! You'll die!"Goku protested.
"At least I will die knowing that you and the others will save Chi Chi and Goten..." Tien began, then coughed softly.
"Come on Tien, be strong, we know that you are strong, I witnessed it first hand!" Goku insisted.
Tien smiled, then replied, "You're right. Do we have any more Senzu Beans?"
"Of course," Vegeta replied, he then walked over to Tien and gave him a Senzu Bean.
"Thanks," Tien said, then ate the bean. He stood up, all the power back in his legs and arms. A smile began forming on his face. He batted the air with a series of powerful punches.
"All my strength has returned to me," Tien said, grinning.
He then punched a wall, causing the whole cave to begin shaking. The wall of the cave was completely demolished by the power of the punch, revealing three people. One person was looking at them angrily, and he looked exactly like Goku! The other two were Chi Chi and Goten, looks of relief washed over their faces when they saw their rescuers.
Bardock turned angrily to the sound of the wall being destroyed. He recognized Kakarot and Prince Vegeta. They were with Gohan and a three eyed person. He must have been the one to destroy the wall.
"Chi Chi! Goten!" Kakarot gasped, then ran across the cave and hugged his family.
Bardock watched the exchange, silent. He understood that Kakarot would be happy to see his family again. Memories of Gine flooded through his mind fleetingly.
"Bardock, we are having a son," Gine said.
"Why should I care?" Bardock asked. Gine looked hurt by his response. Bardock sighed, and embraced her. Gine let out a content sigh and rested her head on his chest. "I'm so proud of you," Bardock murmured, a smile curving on his lips.
...
"Why should I care that I have a little brother? You never paid any attention to me when I grew up, Father," Raditz said scornfully.
"And we all know how you turned out," Bardock said.
Bardock shook his head, trying to push away the memory. I promised I would keep a close eye on Kakarot. But then we had to send him away... I like the way he has turned out. It's almost like someone else raised him. Who could it be? Bardock thought, fighting back rising tears.
"Damn it!" Bardock shouted loudly. The other people looked at him in confusion. Tears streamed down Bardock's face. Anger burned brightly in his eyes.
"Why did you have to die? Gine. Raditz. Where are you?" Bardock whispered.
"Raditz? How do you know Raditz?" Kakarot asked, stiffening.
"Is Raditz your brother?" Bardock asked, Kakarot nodded. "Then what do you think, you brain-dead son of a bitch?" The entire group fell silent. Bardock angrily punched a wall, tears of grief streaming down his face. "Why?! I already had a bad relationship with Kakarot to begin with! Why did I have to make it worse?!" Bardock shouted.
Bardock sensed the entire group staring at him. He ignored them, memories of the past went through his head yet again.
"We'll call him Kakarot." Bardock murmured.
"Yes, I love that name..." Gine said softly.
"Yeah, like he's so cool." Raditz muttered. Both parents glared at their oldest son. He shrugged and said, "Kakarot will have a low power level anyway."
"He does kind of has a point." Bardock admitted.
"How could you say such a thing?! Kakarot is your son!" Gine snapped, causing both Bardock and Raditz to flinch.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to take a nap. Bardock, make sure Raditz doesn't do something stupid tonight."
Bardock nodded and led Raditz out of the room, still stunned by the amount of anger in his wife's normally calm eyes. But, she is right after all. I need to keep an eye on Raditz. He always ends up either hurting someone, or himself. I don't want that to happen today, Bardock thought, shivering.
"Is something wrong, Father? You're shivering like it's cold." Raditz said, raising one eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing is wrong, just go off and do whatever you want, I don't care so long as no one is killed." Bardock snapped back.
"Okay, so you aren't going to watch over me then?" Raditz sneered.
"No need, I don't exactly trust you, but I know you are grown up, so you can make your own decisions. I don't have any say in it anymore. Go on," Bardock growled back.
"Okay... if you say so, Father," Raditz said, then left.
Bardock sighed as he remembered that day. That was when he noticed the Namekian among his son's group. He was shocked. How did Kakarot become friends with a Namekian?! Bardock thought, shocked. Not only that, but the Namekian looked exactly like King Piccolo, the Namekian that had tried to take over Planet Vegeta. Bardock had been among the group that had driven out the crazy Namekian king.
He nearly killed me. If it wasn't for King Vegeta, I would be dead by now, Bardock thought, incredulously. Bardock had thanked King Vegeta graciously and then jumped back into the battle. So many Saiyans had died that day, but they had still managed to chase out the alien. But, how was this Namekian so quiet? Was he tame? Did Kakarot manage to make friends with him? If so, Bardock had a hard fight on his hands.
Bardock sighed and got into his fighting stance. He did not have time to ponder on the matter, right now, he had a battle to fight. And his opponents would not play nicely.
RoyalBlueRoses has helped with this again.