A/N: So I got a fanart for this drawing two years ago by Snow*heart symbol*Body (Pixiv)/Jafrar(fanfiction)! Here's the site at pixiv (remove the parenthesis and the space, and then add this at the end): /member_illust. (php?mode) = (medium&illust_id=46248899)
It's titled: Brothers
This chapter takes place after Raditz found peace from bottle smashing, but before Raditz meets up with Gene.
Chapter 8
Goku was happy. As usual. More than normal. But he wasn't necessarily satisfied. He had his older sister (originally brother), Raditz in his life, and she was the only sibling that he had. Yet, the woman had shown more interest with spending time with Goten and only ever said 'I love you' toward him. Goku tried but got the cold shoulder or a "BAKA! Don't say that to your brother! It's gross!". The man wasn't jealous at all, but felt a bit off-put.
Raditz wasn't into fighting as she had seen it as more of an occupation than a sport. So they talked about random things such as the no tail issue. Goku knew that he annoyed his sister more than anything, but he was who he was, and Raditz seemed willing to put up with it.
He really acted like a child around Raditz. A man reaching his forties couldn't help annoying and getting his older sister, in her mid thirties, angry to the point of chasing and verbally cursing at him in their foreign saiyan language. He was happy to have Raditz in his life, but was not satisfied with their relationship.
"I mean, I'm happy with how things are now, but I also feel like it's rather empty." Goku tried to explain to Korin. He was a wise old cat.
"I see. Perhaps you haven't properly established a bond."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"You two haven't given a token of each other's affections as siblings by giving what could be personally yours. Such as a secret or a moment of just the two of you together that is worth remembering. Unlike normal siblings who have been raised together with memories of their time together as they did, you two have none. I supposed you two would eventually have that regular sibling bond as it is now."
"But for how long?! I don't like how distant we are from each other now." The child-like man pouted sadly.
"And why is that?" The cat asked.
"Because she's my sister and...I guess you can say that I feel responsible for her. Not like a keeper or anything like that!" The man really opposed with the thought of how angry Raditz would be if she assumed that was what he was saying, "But as a brother. I want to take care of her...I guess you can say I want her to trust me with her problems."
"You really have become a caring little brother, Son Goku." Korin commented.
The man grinned embarrassingly with his hand behind his head. "Really? I'm just trying my best. If only it was good enough..." He looked up with both hands behind his head as he thought about it. "..Oh well. I guess I'll have to take your word for it and see where it'll go."
He left the tower to go visit Raditz but then his senses, which he trusted faithfully, made him sense a place he should go to. He followed that sense and ended up in the middle of a forest. He looked around with a keen eye for anything suspicious. But he was pushed out of nowhere into a hole of a tree.
Everything was dark as he could feel air whoosh against his goosebumps. He was falling and it took a bit of a moment to understand what happened before he landed on a floor of dirt.
He got up on his feet looking around to see a rocky plane and a pinkish sky. "Huh? Where am I? Whatever it is, it doesn't look like Earth."
"Earth? What's that?" Goku looked to the voice to see a child sitting against a boulder. He had long, black, spiky hair, lean muscles and was tall for his age. He wore what appeared to be the saiyan armor. His eyes were reddened and cheeks streaked with tears. The boy noticed the man looking and wiped his face. "It's not what it looks like! I wasn't crying!" He cried out protectively.
"I didn't say anything. Uhm...Do you know where we are?"
"What do you mean where we are? We're on planet Vegeta. Hey? Are you even a saiyan?!" He got up and looked at Goku's butt. "You're not! A terrorist!" The boy was about to yell, but then his mouth was covered by the stranger. He struggled out of his grip.
"Shh! I am a saiyan! But my tail got cut off!" He explained. The child stopped struggling and looked at him with wide frightened eyes. "Listen, I need you to please keep quiet about me. I'm not supposed to be here. I know that it'll sound crazy, but I'm from the future." The child muffled what sounded as a repeat of the last two words. "Yes. And I don't know how I got here, but what I do know is that I need to get back to my timeline before I end up changing the future. I'm going to let go of you now, so please don't make a fuss." The man let him go.
Surprisingly the child stayed still and calm. "You sound crazy, but it's not like anyone'll believe me, too, when I tell them about you. You're not going to hurt me are you?"
Goku gave him a friendly smile, "Of course not. I just need to figure out how to get back to my own time. My name is Goku."
"Raditz." The child told him. Goku fell back on his butt with an obvious shocked expression. "What? Do you know me from the future?"
"Uhm...You could say that."
"Really? Do I grow up to be cool and strong like my dad?!" Raditz's eyes gleamed with excitement to know. Forgetting all about his doubts and suspicions on Goku's story.
"Uh...I think it's best that I don't tell you for the sake of the future."
"Oh, I understand. But what's with the ugly clothes?"
"They're not ugly!" The child man pouted at that question.
"Whatever. If you want to fit in, you have to put on some real clothes! Wait here!" The child Raditz ran off.
Goku waited for him patiently as he lied against the rock where Raditz was sitting against earlier. He thought to himself, 'Wow, this is Raditz as a kid. I think I'm dreaming but it feels real.' Goku pinched himself. "OW! It is real! Wait, so that means that I really traveled to the past after something hit me from behind! Oh geez, think of what Chichi will do to me. It might even be worse since she just got along with Raditz. I really messed up this time that she probably will stick a needle up my fanny." The man shivered by the thought.
He calmed himself and reasoned, "It's not all that bad. If I return back to the exact time I left, then they won't notice that I was ever gone! That's fool proof...But I still don't know how to make that happen. Gee, I wish Raditz was around. She always knew what to do. Like that last time I accidentally created that big flood that nearly destroyed a village while carelessly training in the mountains. Raditz was already on the spot of what to do as if nothing happened!" Thinking about his family made him feel a bit lonely as he waited.
Soon child Raditz appeared with a saiyan suit in hand with a wrapped up blanket. "Sorry I took so long. I figured that you would've wanted to wear the latex pants instead of the underwear."
"Thanks!" Goku changes his clothes. He wore a saiyan suit before but with the added shoulder pads and armor skirt, it felt silly to him, but it was useful to blend in. He saw the kid stare at him with awe. "So how do I look?"
Raditz looked down shyly. "It's good." He looked up at him again. "Now that you're wearing this, you look a lot like my dad."
"Your dad? Is he around?"
The child shook his head with his body. "He's out on a mission. He's Bardock the great! He's the best fighter out there in the third class! And if he tries hard enough, he'll reach middle class as one of the king's most trusted and relied on soldier! And someday, when I grow up, and go on my first mission, I'll try as hard as him and become an elite!"
"It looks like you have a big dream ahead of you." Goku knew what the future had for Raditz, but played along.
"I do have a big dream! And when I become an elite, I'll be the best of the elites that the next king will have me at his side!" The child said with such passion that Goku almost believed him. Then the child opened the wrapped up blanket which revealed a variation of food that the saiyan hadn't seen before. "I thought that you would be hungry, so I bought you food. Eat up!" They both sat down.
"Don't mind that I do! Thank you for the food!" Goku ate the weird meat and such and it was all good. He kept eating, and then paused realizing that Raditz was just sitting there staring at him. "Aren't you going to eat?" He asked.
"No. I already ate. Wow, you really are a saiyan since you eat like one. Why is your tail gone?"
"It got cut off when I was a kid so I couldn't turn into an ape."
"What?! That's an insult to your heritage!" The kid quickly got on his feet in a fighting stance. "Who are these scums?! I'll take care of them in a second!"
"Calm down. They're not here. Besides, what were you doing out here. I don't see anyone nearby." Goku noticed.
The child twitched as if he'd been found out. "It's because I like being alone!"
"But you were crying earlier."
"I wasn't! I just had something in my eye and the best way to get it out was through crying!" Raditz insisted that that was the truth. "Anyway, you'll need a place to stay. Lucky for you, you can stay at my house since my parents are almost never home with their missions and stuff. I'll look and ask around if there's a time machine or something. It doesn't mean I believe you, and if you try something funny, I swear that I'll beat the living tail out of you!"
"I swear I won't. So you usually hang out over here?"
"Only when it's a free day from training school." Raditz responded. "Home gets boring after a while, so I go back to our old one. We used to live in that cave." The child pointed at the cave nearby. "I also sleep there sometimes. It's been three years since we joined Lord Frieza, but I still prefer living at the cave. It's not so silent compared to my home now."
The man was done eating. "Wow, that was delicious. Did you make that?"
The kid nodded. "I always made my own meals since I was a kid since my parents were fighting in the war a few years ago. I don't mind raw meat, but with nothing to do, I experiment with almost anything." Goku stood up still feeling weird in his new suit. "Ready to go?"
"Yup!"
"Then follow me and don't say a single word. You also have to keep a stern face like me." Raditz had his fingers over his furrowed eyebrows and made a firm scowl.
"Right." Goku tried but end up making an awkward smile because it felt ridiculous.
"C'mon! You gotta do it!" Raditz scowled harder.
Goku tried again but couldn't help laughing. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I can't keep a straight face!"
"Then what kind of saiyan are you?! Did you hit your head like that Gine woman?!"
"Gine who?"
"Ugh! Nevermind! We'll sneak through to get you in! C'mon!" Raditz ordered and the two flew through the sky avoiding passerby. But one saiyan in particular headed toward them.
"If it isn't Radisha!"
"Shut up Turles!"
"Awe, don't be like that! Who's this guy? He kinda looks like me?" Turles looked at Goku. Raditz covered his sight.
"He's none of your damn business!"
"He can't be your daddy since he's out on a mission, so he must be your daddy's replacement! You know you don't have to try so hard being such a daddy fan. You already have me! I look plenty like your dad!"
"Wall."
"What? UGH!" Turles bumped against a building he didn't notice at all. Raditz smirked satisfyingly, and the two got to his home, which was a very simple house with two bed rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen.
"You live here all alone?" Goku asked looking around at the large space.
"Most of the time. My dad never comes here, but my mom comes after a mission." Raditz explained. "You will have to stay here, and never go out, or else they'll kill you for insanity and being a defect to the saiyan race. They do that to the others like the guys who can get pregnant."
"What? Guys can get pregnant?"
"Yeah! And it's disgusting!"
"Do you really believe that?" Goku found it weird, but after what happened with Turles and Daiz, he accepted it as something harmlessly natural.
Raditz scowled at him as a sign of honesty, but his face faltered when he thought about it. "...Not really. Honestly, it means more saiyans would be born so our race can expand and take over more galaxies. I think that Lord Frieza pushed the idea, so we wouldn't."
"That makes sense. Wow, you're really smart."
Raditz blushed at the compliment. "Y-you really think so?"
"Yeah! How old are you?"
"I'm eight."
"Really? You look like you're ten or at least thirteen." Goku looked at awe of Raditz's unusual height for his age.
"I had a growth spurt when I was five. Because of that, people mistake my age, and think I'm even weaker in my age group. The other kids pick on me for my height and my strength, but I think they're just jealous." Raditz went over to one door. "This is my mother's room. You can sleep here."
Goku went inside the room to see one circular window, a closet, and one bed. Raditz went over and patted the bed. "I washed the covers yesterday so it's fresh. If you need anything, I'm next door."
"What do you do for entertainment around here?"
"I read." Raditz led him to his room where it was similar to his mother's room but it was filled with stacks of books. "Each saiyan has a delivery system once a month, and my parents are paid for every successful mission through this." He pulled out a metallic scroll from his closet. When it was unwrapped, it had a screen like a computer. It turned on immediately and showed unreadable words for Goku. "My mom spends all her money on the bar, so I use my dad's own to buy books to be delivered here. The rest of the books that I already read were sent into a storage area or sold back if it wasn't good."
"You really like reading huh. I didn't know that."
"What do I do?"
"Uhm, still can't tell."
The child gave him a curt look before explaining, "The kind of books I like to read are on different species that are good to eat, and theories and facts on space. I know that it's very uncharacteristic for a fighter...but I got nothing to do." He put the scroll away.
"You sound like it's something to be ashamed of. Everyone has their different hobbies."
"It is something to be ashamed about! What kind of warrior spends his day reading books! I should be training..."
The child looked so sad that Goku wanted to do something. "So do you want to train together?"
"Huh?" Raditz looked up at him with disbelief.
"Do you wanna train together? I'm pretty good at it and can teach you a bunch of stuff!"
"Really? You wanna train with me?"
"Yeah."
Raditz looked down with a blush. He twiddled with his fingers. "Su-Sure."
"Great! Let's start now!"
"Now?"
"Yeah!" The older saiyan pulled him out to the spacey kitchen and thought Raditz simple exercises to build up his strength and speed.
Raditz had shown to be a fast learner, but was also lazy or lacked effort in fighting. But when he would read books and explain to Goku, he was very passionate and confident.
The man wasn't used to staying in a house for too long, so Raditz reasoned that he had to wear a helmet while going out and if anyone questioned him, he'd just have to tell them that he had to do his job and just leave without another word. If caught, it was okay for him to punch them in the face and scram. The man had to really go as far as where he first met Raditz to not be bothered by the others.
On his first trip out, he decided to stroll out to take in the view of the planet. The place was similar to a city with its tall white buildings and circular blue windows, and spike on top. Female, male and child saiyans roamed the place through foot or flight to go off to work, play around or chat up someone. They weren't very scary at all. Other aliens, though not many, also roamed around.
Then the man accidentally bumped into something big but not hard. Yet, smelled terrible. "Excuse me." Goku looked up to see what it was, and saw that it was a fellow saiyan that was almost taller than older Raditz who had a posse of about ten men behind him.
"Hey! Watch where you're going punk?!" The man bellowed at him.
"Hey! I said excuse me!"
"Oh, you're excused when you get a lesson to not mess with a first class, you low class scum!" All of them attacked him with sadistic grins, but then Goku dodged all of them. He punched two of them in the stomach, attacked three with a fierce kick, kneed one in the stomach, punched three at the face and then threw one to a building.
"No way! Are you an elite?!" One of them yelled in fear when it didn't fall unconscious by the mysterious man's punch, but certainly felt that something broke. The others who were still awake quickly got on their feet bowing down and apologizing in respect and pleaded for their lives.
"I'm not going to kill you." Goku told them, feeling like this was ridiculous. Yet, forgot that he was on a planet filled with unmerciful warriors. "THANK YOU!" They ran leaving their unconscious friends behind. Goku shouted, "Hey, you forgot them!...I guess they might have went to get them help. Well, I can't do anything since I'm supposed to not get in trouble."
So walking on, he accidentally bumped into someone again. Goku thought to himself that he needed to pay more attention.
Surprisingly, this one was nice. "Oh! I'm sorry!"
Goku replied, "It's okay. I wasn't looking where I was going anyway." He looked at the woman to see that she had a timid beauty with friendly eyes.
She gave a frank child-like smile. "Neither was I. I'm Gine."
"Goku."
"Goku?" She blinked her eyes. "I don't think I ever heard of you, but you have a really nice name."
"Heh. You too." The man didn't understand it but felt like they had a bond long over due as the woman smiled that frank child-like smile with those twinkling curious eyes.
"I need to go to my job. It was nice meeting you, Goku. It's rare meeting someone so nice." She quickly ran off, yet looked back. "I hope we meet again!" Then she bumped into a wall. She embarrassingly laughed at her action and went on. Goku laughed with her, and went on his way.
After his tour and training by himself, he waited back at the house after eating the lunch that Raditz cooked and ordered for him before leaving. He really loved Raditz's cooking. It just wakes up all his taste buds that he just had to savor them in his mouth.
Raditz came home with bruises, cuts, burns and bite marks. Goku's eyes widened at the hideous blemishes given to the child. "Who did this to you?" Goku quickly questioned with eagerness to set this right.
"It's nothing." Raditz responded, going to the kitchen counter to take out a liquid and a cloth to take the physical pain away. "The people at the medic gave me this so I didn't always bothered them there when they need to heal the real fighters." The child told him. "Unless they break a bone, I have to go."
Goku was shocked by how blunt the child was talking after being beaten like this. "Who did this?"
"The other kids at training camp. It's nothing new." The child was getting ready to make dinner.
"Nothing new?!" Goku yelled, "Did anyone help you?"
"No. The adults just laughed and watch." The child said this as if it was the most normal thing to do.
"That's not right!"
The child stopped what he was doing to look at the male as if he was the strange one. "What are you talking about? It's a part of our heritage to face the beatings! Are you really a saiyan?" He returned to cooking.
"Ah...So are other children treated this way?" He asked hopefully.
"I don't know. Most of the kids pick on me everyday when they got nothing better to do." The older saiyan was silent. He didn't know what to say. He just sat at the table until Raditz was done cooking dinner for them. Raditz began eating, but paused to notice that he wasn't eating. "What's wrong with you?"
"Raditz...Is there really any point for you to go to this training camp again?"
"Of course I have to." He chewed on a piece of meat and gulped it down. "If I don't go, then they'd consider me a defect and kill me."
"They'd kill you just for not going to this training camp?!"
"Stop shouting! I'm right over here! And yeah! Shouldn't you know that?!"
"Uh...A lot changes in the future. That's all I can tell you. Can I go with you to this 'training camp'?"
"Don't be stupid. If you go there with me, they'll think you're my dad, but when they realized you're not, they'll take you away. They might think you're crazy, and kill you on the spot."
"Right...How about in secret?"
"Boy, the future must have really changed. You can't go in secret because we use our scouters. We'll easily detect you if you were near. Now shut up and eat your food. It's getting cold!" The child complained by all the questions and stupid suggestions.
Goku left him in peace, realizing that he could do nothing to protect Raditz without putting his life and the past in danger. He clenched his pants hard and gritted his teeth hard as he felt helpless. Then he felt a hand on his own. He stopped clenched his pants to understand what the child was doing.
Raditz gave him the face of disappointment. "I'm not weak, idiot! No matter what the stupid kids say! I can take care of myself! Even I got to give a good punch that they came back with a bruise the next day!" He said this with reaffirming passionate eyes. This made the older saiyan guilty to ever feel doubt for him. The child may not be the best fighter in the world, but he still had his own strengths.
As days passed when Raditz came back unsuccessful of his search for a way for Goku to go back to his time, Goku learned a lot about Raditz. The child was still very much like his older self where he was deceitful and sly as he tricked the older saiyan during their sparring to win unfairly. He was also very proud as he mocked the man at times. Being the light hearty fool, he made the younger saiyan get away with this.
Raditz also kept his good points of being very talented in cooking, cleaning, and singing as well. At night, he would sing to Goku the saiyan lullabies and other songs when he couldn't sleep. Due to this, the man slept more at Raditz's room on the floor. The child would give him a pillow and blanket to make it more comfortable for him.
There were also the bad days when Raditz would come home with those ugly blemishes after fighting with the other children, and none of the adults would help him. Goku was still furious by this, but did nothing to not make Raditz feel shame for his strength, and not to endanger himself.
The fun and the sadness. A part of the older saiyan didn't want to go back. He didn't want to leave Raditz all alone in this house again.
Months passed, and none of his parents were ever home, but the child had slowly gotten better at fighting that he came home with less bruises and cuts.
"So these dragon balls on this planet called Earth can grant you one wish?" Raditz asked. The two were eating lunch after some light training. Goku began talking about what life on Earth was like without giving away that he lived there. Just that he knew someone who did and destroyed it later. He wasn't sure if this would save the future, but was sure if anything changed, he would find a way to fix it.
"Yup!" He responded. "An alien race called Nameks made them. But you can only make one wish once a year, but if the guardian of the planet that the dragon balls are at is dead, they don't work anymore."
"Ah~, that's so cool! If I was able to wish for anything, it'd be that my dad finally has no mission for a while so he could spend time with me. I only saw him once or twice and that was when he was injured by a mission or during the war. I tried to spend time with him, but he had to go on another mission."
"Did he even bother to say hello or goodbye?"
"He glances at me and says," He mimics his father's voice with a gruff tone and a deep scowl, "'Not now kid.', and leaves. Isn't that cool?!"
"Uh...yeah. So you'd just wish to spend time with your dad?" Goku asked to clarify what Raditz really wanted. "What if you had two wishes?"
"Two wishes?!" The child was excited by the idea and thought about it. "I guess...I'd wish for my mom to also have time with us so we could all have one big dinner together, and do stuff together like train like how we do!" Raditz told him passionately. "How about you? What would you wish for?"
"Me? I guess I'd wish to go back home-"
"No! Other than that! That's obvious! What would you wish for if you weren't stuck here?!" The child was very focused on him with curiosity.
"Uhm...I don't really know. There's nothing more than I want to go back to my timeline right now." Goku answered honestly, but thought of one, "Wait, I think I do have one wish. I'd wish that my brother would have his wish come true."
"Your brother? You have a brother in the future?"
"Yeah. And a wife and two sons, and apparently a nephew, too."
"Wow, you have a big family. Do you spar with your family, too?"
"Yeah. I train with my sons, and I used to fight with my wife before she settled down with just staying in the house to take care of the house chores. I couldn't spar with my nephew since he is still a baby. I try to spar with my brother, but he finds it to be a bother."
"How can he find it to be a bother?! Fighting is something all saiyans love!"
"Is that an actual fact, or just a stereotype standard?" Goku asked. Raditz thought on it and realized that the latter was true. The child found fighting to be sort of a bother. He likes to fight, but not really seriously.
"Your brother's still stupid." Raditz said with childish stubbornness. Goku held in his giggle by the irony.
"He's actually really smart. Compared to me anyways. He always knows what to do and say. He lies a lot, too, but he means well. He may not be the strongest fighter, but...he's really important to me."
The child Raditz felt sort of jealous, "You really care about him."
The man grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, I do. But he gets angry every time I show it."
"He shouldn't be..."
"Huh?"
Raditz hugged his knees looking down at them. "He shouldn't be angry that you care."
Goku smiled. "I think it's just his way of showing that he cares, too. It's not easy for everyone to show that they care."
"So when your brother's angry at you, it means he cares?"
"I'd like to think so. Who knows? All I know is that he is a part of my family, and he's important to me."
"Am I..." The child mumbled something.
"What was that?"
"I-It's nothing! Let's hurry up and train!" Raditz began to gobble up the food.
"Hey!" Goku went for his favorites which was basically everything.
The two trained afterwards, but Raditz had a stomach ache by eating too fast. So the two spent the day with the child reading to Goku from one of his books. The child took comfort in lying his head against Goku's arms as the male listened to the interesting facts.
One night, Raditz was coming home late. Goku was worried because this usually meant that the kid was hurt real bad and had to go to the medic to heal him.
He looked out the window of the darkened pink sky with a faded orange moon that had appeared after eight years. No saiyan was allowed to exit from their home without having eye wear to shield their eyes from the moon rays. But since Goku didn't have a tail he could stare at it all he wanted.
The saiyan heard the door creak. He quickly looked over his shoulder at the door with relief, but then someone else entered. A woman. "Raditz?" The woman looked a lot like Raditz with her body figure and hair, but then her eyes were different. She had a deep set of dark green eyes unlike Raditz's brown hooded eyes. Everything else was as it was. A tall strong curvy pear shaped body with broad shoulders, amazing legs, long black mane of spiky hair, and other womanly features.
The woman wobbled in with a bottle in hand and slammed the door shut behind her. Goku could pick up the strong scent of something bitter on her that was similar to alcohol. She tripped on air.
"Hey? Are you okay?" He went over to her and turned her over into his arms. Goku figured that this was Raditz's mother.
She opened her eyes and punched Goku at the jaw. "Who the hell are you?!" She roared quickly getting up on her feet. She was ready to fight despite her eye sight still being blurry. "Bardock?!" She attacked at full force with her kick that made Goku's arm vibrate in pain. He didn't expect the kick to be that strong. "You blocked that? Heh. Gotten better have you. When we met, you were nothing!" She gave an assault that Goku blocked with his hands.
"Fast? You can't be Bardock." She rubbed her eyes. "You look like him but you don't got his scar, and his brother has darker skin. Did I bring you home?"
"N-no. Raditz invited me here."
"Who?"
"Your son." Goku was surprised that she forgot. Unable to believe that this was their mother.
"Right. Where is the little twit?" She asked in a tone that made the man angry.
"He's not here and his name is Raditz."
"Must be at the medic ward again. That means the house belongs to us for the night. Kid or Lady Mame. Whatever you prefer to scream." She looked at him with a seductive look that would move most men to fall under her spell, but Goku wasn't most men. Literally. Yet, the woman didn't see his disapproving expression as she pushed him down on the ground.
"Hey!" Goku pushed her off. He got on his feet and heard the door closed. He knew that couldn't happen unless someone was there. 'Raditz?' The man quickly exit the house to see someone fly away. Goku flew after him. "Raditz!"
The child was out of ear shot before ending up at the cave. Goku followed him in. "Raditz!"
"AAAH!" Being caught completely off guard, Raditz turned around completely frightened that he shot out from both his hands that had the cave crumble down from above. Everything turned pitch black. The child flew deeper into the cave. Goku used an energy ball to light up the place, but didn't see where the kid was. He sensed for his energy and flew after him.
He found Raditz huddled against a rocky wall. "Raditz?" He tried a softer approach. "It's Goku. I'm sorry for scaring you back there, and I wasn't doing anything with your mother."
The child looked up at him to see if he was speaking the truth, and saw in the man's eyes that he was right. Goku sat next to him. "It's okay. I left so I wouldn't bother you two. My mom's gorgeous, isn't she? Every man who got the chance to be with her were considered the luckiest men in the world, and hope to survive the next time since my mom is the most frightening saiyan warrior, and possibly the strongest."
Goku couldn't disagree with him. The man could still feel the hard punches and kicks the woman pulled with such ferocity. Raditz continued, "I'm sorry for back there. I thought you were one of the saiyan patrolmen since I went out during a full moon. No one chases after me unless they want to hurt me, or bring me to someone to do it for them."
"The kids do that?"
Raditz shook his head. "I never run away from a fight or else what they say will be true! Plus, don't mind my mom's attitude. She'll regret it when she's sober."
"Hm?" Goku cocked his head to the side.
"She calls me a lot of things, and they hurt, but after she sobers up, she cries in her room secretly apologizing to me. My mom is very prideful so thinks she hasn't shown that side of her to me...My mom lost her dad during the civil war between the saiyans due to its anarchy over who was considered a defect. My mom's parent's side lost, and the government turned into a monarchy when King Vegeta took charge. So please forgive her."
"...Alright. We should go home then." The man was about to get up to go, but Raditz said, "Wait." He looked at the child who stood up, "You told me months ago that you came here through under a tree. I told you there was none of those here, but there actually is. It's in this cave. I didn't tell you about it before because you may not be acting the way my dad would, but you look like him, so it felt like he was home." The child nodded his head down in guilt, but then felt a hand pat on his head. He looked up to see the man smiling.
"I understand. I also get lonely sometimes when my dad (Grandpa Gohan) didn't come home, but I'm sure that he's thinking about you."
Raditz's eyes lit up by those words, but then they were shrouded by doubt. He reached for one of Goku's hand that didn't hold the energy ball. "It's this way." The child led him through the tunnel as natural as walking through a house you lived in for years.
Goku then witnessed a tree that was leaned back with its roots showing. Water dripped from above and slid down the brown, healthy bark of the tree to the roots with green moss near the ground.
"This is what you were talking about, right?" The child asked pointing at it.
The older saiyan closely inspected it to see that it was in fact a tree, but the water had a strange glow to it. "Yup! It's a tree alright. But what's with the water?"
"It's the healing juice that the medic ward uses. That's why the tree here has been able to live while the others died on this planet. There's actually a rich river of it behind this wall that leads to a waterfall and flows through different channels that rewinds the flow. None of the other saiyans know about this because they learned to replicate and reuse the liquid. I come here whenever I wasn't in the mood to see the medic."
"Wow! Really?" Goku thought it was amazing by how Raditz said it.
The child nodded, "But first, let's see if you can go back to your time by repeating what happened before."
"Right." Goku dived in but landed in a patch of dirt. "Nope! Still here!"
Raditz slid in. "Figured it wouldn't work. Then let's go." Raditz used his energy ball to show a tunnel and slid into it. Goku followed him. The two went through a slide until they fell into a pond of the glowing blue liquid. Goku didn't have to use an energy ball by how the glowing liquid already lit the room.
"Wow! It's beautiful!" Goku commented on the scenery and got out of the pond to follow the river to see that it did lead to a water fall the led to different channels. Above them had small dots of them that dripped back down. Strangely they glowed in other rich colors like jewels. "Hey! They look like stars!" Goku sat down to admire them.
"Yeah, they glow different up there by the different heat temperatures and rock structure. I'm really curious of what they are, but no saiyan or any other saiyan is interested."
"Then why don't you just name them?" Goku asked.
"Me? That wouldn't make it accurate."
"But you know so much already that you can name them yourself! Plus you're the one who discovered them! You have the right to name them whatever you want!"
The child thought about it for a moment, "Then I'll name the rock that makes the liquid reddish orange, Goku, for your old mediocre clothes!" Goku let the insult slide. Raditz pointed at the other, "The other rock that makes the purplish pink glow has a different texture and color. If I touch it, it falls easily showing it's lack of hardness and density. So I'll call it..." So Raditz made different names for each, and told Goku of the comparisons to other alien rocks to explain why he'd name the others. There were seven types all in all.
Raditz continued talking about the difference between several living things he had talked about, and their stupidity to the effects of society. Goku questioned of what his opinion was about how his race was exterminating other races. The two were lying down next to each other.
"What I think?..." Raditz thought about it. "You want me to be really honest?" Goku nodded. "Really really honest cuz you're from the future. I don't want you to find me and mock me."
"I promise I won't." The man gave a promising and convincing expression.
Raditz looked closely to make sure. Then back away, lying back down. "I find it bothersome. I mean I respect my heritage and all, but we're doing it because Lord Frieza tells us to. Not because we want to. What the moon (hell) is that? It's stupid." The child pouted.
Goku understood what he was saying. "So you don't mind exterminating other races?"
"It's like a waste of knowledge, but it's for our pride. That's the most important thing to us."
"What if it wasn't?"
"Huh?"
"What if you didn't have to exterminate for your pride? What would you exterminate for?"
"...I don't think I'd exterminate then." Raditz said, ruminating in his eight year old mind. "I'd rather be playing all day long then, with my family. What about you?"
"Huh?"
"We're still exterminating races in the future, right?" The child questioned.
"Uhm...It's complicated. But I fight just because I like to!"
"Just because you like to?"
"Yeah! But I don't kill my opponents unless I have no choice."
"But it's kill or be killed!"
"Yeah, but not unless your opponent is really strong and threatening to kill everything you love!" Goku reasoned. "You don't have to kill an opponent to feel strong. Plus it's even more exciting when they come back stronger!"
"But what if you die!"
"Then you do what you always do. In the after life, there is this blue man called King Kai. He can train you to fight! Or you could just read a lot of books or learn from him! He knows pretty much everything!" Goku told him.
Raditz's eyes lit up with wonder as he imagined this blue man to look very wise, old and strong. No where near how the real king kai looked like. "I'd like to meet him."
"But you'll have to die before you can, and you still have your life ahead of you." Goku told him. The child made a thinking expression that made the man worry when it looked like the child was taking careful consideration toward a deal. "Uh...Let's go now! Your mother must be worried!"
Raditz agreed, not knowing that the man wanted to keep him from thinking more on his decisions. Goku hoped he hadn't screwed the future for real after everything he's done. Mentioning the afterlife as being not that bad might have imprinted on Raditz that giving in to it wouldn't be a bother.
The two exit the secret place to the end of the cave that was blocked. Goku blasted the rocks off. He then picked Raditz up into his arms. "I think it's best that I hold onto you so you won't look at the moon." The child didn't resist or disagree, so Goku flew off keeping him close to his chest.
When they reached there, the man looked down at the child who happened to have fallen asleep during the trip back. Goku carried him in to see that the woman must have went into her room to sleep. So he tucked Raditz in.
When he exited, he saw that the woman was up with a strong scowl and crossed arms. Her glare fiercely aimed at him. Goku glared back. Mame's scowl softened. "I don't care who the fuck are you or your shitty motives." She said sternly. She looked down with disappointment as her lips twitched and tightened. It looked like she was struggling to say something but settled with, "Why the fuck do you have to look like his damn bastardizing father?!" She marched out of the house.
Goku didn't go after her or slept in her room, thinking that she might come back. He lied on the floor next to Raditz's bed.
A year passed for the saiyan who had grown feeling like he completely understood the child Raditz. At this point, going back to the past almost didn't matter. It did, but after that night with Raditz's mother and still never seeing their father, he didn't want to leave Raditz alone. He knew Raditz will survive to his present, but for now he just wanted to be on the planet filling his life with no loneliness.
In a way, this somewhat satisfied that empty distance between him and his brother.
And then there was the day that Raditz came home with a complete, blank expression. As if he was completely drained from life inside.
"Raditz? What's wrong?" Goku asked with concern as he knelled down to meet the child eye to eye.
Raditz looked at him with soulless eyes. "Nothing. I just got to get a glimpse of my dad today." he answered lamely.
"Really?" Goku smiled happily for him, hoping to spark him to smile, but there was nothing. "How was it?"
"The usual...He actually mentioned me..." The child looked away to the floor without any interest in his eyes. "...He said that I was no son of his. That I was none of his concern. The good news is that he got that other woman pregnant...The one that everyone has been saying who he was settling down with as true mates. He's starting a new family, and maybe he'll be happier with that one..." The child said this like a ghost.
"Raditz, don't say that! Your father doesn't realize what he lost all these years."
"He does!" Raditz shouted slightly shaking from his ghost of a self. "He lost the chance to realize what true disappointment is when and if he ever sees me! I am weak! I am the weakest saiyan there is and ever will be! I am worthless! I am a failure! Just like everyone always said! I am weakling Raditz, and I deserve this!"
Goku grabbed him and held him close. The child was streaked with tears like he was the first time they met. "No you're not! You don't deserve any of that! You're not worthless! You're not a failure! If anything, you're stronger than all of them because they never dealt with what you have been dealing with all your life! The pain and agony you go through...I doubt that I could live with that, and still be so optimistic and loving like you!"
"YOU LIE!" Raditz pounded his fists on the man. "You are just deceiving me! Let go of me! Let go of me!"
Goku only held him closer. "I'm not lying, Raditz! How can I lie unlike the rest of them?! Don't I know you better than all of them?! We spent every day together, and I never hurt you. I never want to hurt you." The man let out his own tears. To see his brother shattered like this, and the thought that he would have faced this moment alone without anyone to comfort him, he couldn't help, but hold Raditz as he did. "They all don't deserve you if they knew the true you. I know I don't."
"Don't say that." The child sobbed, stopping his fists to clench the man's uniform hard. "It'll make me feel all alone...I don't want to be alone anymore..." The child cried out loudly against the man.
After they calmed down, Raditz got tired that he wanted to sleep. "Where are you going?" He asked noticing that the man was getting ready to leave.
Goku gave him a warm smile. "I just need to handle something. I'll be back. I promise." Raditz doubted the man for a second, but had no strength to stop him so had faith that he'd come back.
Unknown to him, Goku set out to find his father, Bardock. The saiyan didn't care if he was their father. To go so low as to disown a child that he didn't bother to get to know, he went out of his way of asking anyone.
When he found the man, the first thing he did was punch him in the face. Not too hard to kill him or knock him out because he had a lot to say.
"Listen here you selfish idiot!" Goku's anger was in flames, but he restrained himself. He didn't care about Bardock's team who guarded him. "You have a great son, but you turn away from him all because everyone else is ashamed of him. Because of you and all of you ignorant morons, Raditz had to suffer for something he had no control or say of. You are his father! A father is supposed to protect and stand by their child! I don't give a damn of how busy you are, it wouldn't kill you to see him once in a while just to make his day better despite what everyone else says or does because none of their opinions or actions matter but yours! Goddammit, if only you could see how heart broken you made him...And yet he still cared for your happiness... It's not right!" Goku didn't go super saiyan, but he made a gust of wind that frightened them. "You don't deserve to be his father. You don't deserve to be a father at all!"
Bardock stood up with an angry scowl, "Who the hell are you?!"
"Who am I? Is that what you think really matters?!" He let out another powerful gust of wind. Goku clenched his fists as he remembered all his time spent with his brother. In a twisted way, he wanted to end it all. End his brother's suffering but knew that that would only upset him more. His brother respected his heritage, and would find the mass homicide as a way of saying he was truly too weak to deal with it himself. The man didn't know what else to do to appease it all. "I feel sorry for you if you hadn't caught a single word I said about the one son who admires and loves you as if you were such a great person. But you will never amount to anything, even as a fighter, the way you are. That's all I got to say."
Goku turned away and was shocked to find Raditz having witnessed everything. "Go-Goku..." The child was too tired to express much. The man took the moment to pick Raditz up into his arms and walked away.
"Bar-Bardock." Toma checked his leader. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" The man stared at the two males walking away. He thought he saw the child before, only to realize the hair was very much like a certain woman. Then he realized that that was his son Raditz.
Goku flew through the air to go back home. He felt his heated face began to steam off from such an intense encounter. "Goku..." He heard the child call out. The young saiyan had his head lied against his shoulder looking at nothing in particular. "You didn't have to do that." He said, but didn't sound upset about his actions at all.
"I know, but it's about time someone did something for you."
"...I'm sorry..."
"For what?"
"For following you. I thought you were going to leave me after all. I should've trusted you after everything."
"Don't worry about that. You need to rest."
"I don't want to...I'm scared that you're going to disappear and all of this was just a dream." He placed his forehead against the man's warm neck.
"It's okay, Raditz, I'm not going anywhere."
"You're lying. You know that you have to go back to your timeline and forget about me there." The child said nonchalantly as he was starting to fall asleep.
"That's not true Raditz. In the future, you will have a lot of complications, but then you will have a family who'll care and love you despite everything in the past because you're my brother." Goku revealed but then heard soft breathing and a lack of response. He realized that Raditz had fallen asleep before he had replied.
He let Raditz sleep and tucked him into bed. He saw how content the child was as he slept. Goku walked out of the room and found himself back in the forest in an instant.
The child Raditz woke up and felt his heavy eyes that he recognized were the symptoms of crying too much. He rubbed his crusty eye before feeling strange. It felt like something just walked out of his life, but he couldn't remember. Raditz's mother, who was in the middle of murdering a race, felt as if she had been abandoned by something for someone that needed to not be abandoned by her. It confused her, so ignored it and killed some more. Gine, during her work in the meat factory, stopped for a moment to feel as if she had missed out in a part of something, but ignored it immediately and smiled as she worked while being pregnant. Bardock felt like something extremely important left his mind, and thought hard of what it could be, but eventually gave up.
Everyone of the past forgot, but Goku didn't. He remembered everything as he stood at that forest. He looked around him to understand what was happening. Behind him was the tree that he fell into. He looked inside it to see that it was just dirt, dead leaves and bugs.
He was flabbergasted by everything he went through. He quickly went to Korin's tower since it was the last place he went to. He questioned the cat of when he left, and it was only a few seconds ago. He then explained everything that had happened.
"I see. It seems that must have fallen into the 'Past Forgiving Tree'. It calls out to people who'll need her. It's a tree that'll allow you to be sent to where your ancestors lie. Set you in a year before your parents was known to be pregnant with you. But Raditz will not remember you. The people of the past shall forget all while those of the future, considered the present now, will."
"So wait, Raditz as a kid doesn't remember me at all? That entire year, he spent all by himself. When his father crushed him, he had no one there to comfort him?" Goku felt like he had been cheated, and a part of his was stolen, which left this aggravating hollowed feeling on his back.
"Exactly. It was a learning experience for you, Son Goku. Not an experience where you had the power to change what you wanted. In this present, your own child self's future must be exactly as it is without interruptions of this time travel."
Goku was upset by that, but knew that the cat was right. This was the present. "Thank you for explaining this to me. I really need to be somewhere right now." Goku jumped away and used his trusty flying nymbus to get him to Raditz's house and find the woman.
She was cooking lunch. "Kakarot? I'm not done yet, if you came here for the food."
"Yeah, I'm not here for that. What I really want to say is that I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad that you're a part of my family, and that you're my sister."
Raditz stared at him, and then chuckled, "I'm your brother, you fool. Is that all you came here for?"
Goku then grinned guiltily, "I also came for your awesome cooking!"
"Then sit. I'm almost done." She said as she added the last ingredient to her soup, and set the other meals on the table. Goku watched her work and compared her to the child Raditz. He smiled to see a warmer comparison to this than the past.
A/N: Kid/Lady Mame (Kidney bean): Raditz's mother
She is incredibly impatient and violent with everyone except Raditz who she does care for, but due to her alcoholic ways, she becomes verbally abusive and ignorant towards him, and is too stubborn to apologize afterwards. She convinces herself that she was doing nothing wrong, and that she was strengthening her child.
She is in fact stronger and a better fighter than Bardock and the other saiyans. Other than that, she is a woman that many men had feared yet lust for despite having a mate. Most men had best chances when she was completely wasted, and approached one of them.
She was born by two fathers before the idea was deemed disgusting through anarchy which caused a civil war between the saiyans before the truffle-saiyan war. Unknown to most, Mame's paternal father was the first saiyan god. Mame's maternal father was one of the soldiers. Due to being outnumbered and the saiyan god having a time limit, they lost. She faced the tragedy of losing both her fathers, and pretending to have been born by his maternal father's sister to survive while the others considered a defect were slaughtered.