DISCLAIMER:
Vetyga: (Laughs with triumph as she stares at the seven brightly glowing orange red-starred balls laying before her feet) Ha ha haaaa! It took me a bit, but I've FINALLY done it! I've finally managed to gather ALL seven of the oh-so-wonderful dragonballs! And NOW I am ready to make my WISH! ARISE DRAGON! I commend you! ...Uh, I mean, I COMMAND YOU! Ha ha haaaaa!
Shenlong: (Sky darkens as Shenlong magically appears) I have the power to grant you one wish and one alone as long as it is within my power! Now tell me what it is that you desire!
Vetyga: (looks very disappointed) Hey! Aren't you supposed to grant me TWO wishes?
Shenlong: (pouts in annoyance) I am SHENLONG, not PORUNGA! He's on vacation for the next year and a half, so I'M here in his place! And SECONDLY, you cannot even speak Namekian to summon him anyways, so be glad you're even GETTING a wish! So there! Hmphf! Now, get on with it!
Vetyga: (Sighs) Okay, whatever! My wish is…. My OH-SO-GLORIOUS WISH IS that you reveal to me RATH'S SECRET PLOT TWIST! Ah ha ha haaaaa!
Shenlong: (Says with an exaggerated tone of importance) Your wish has been granted! Rath's SECRET PLOT TWIST IS… (Shenlong's voice volume is suddenly shifted to mute for several minutes) AND THAT is the conclusion of the SHOCKING TWIST….!
Vetyga: (Mouth drops open in dismay) What! NOOOOO! I couldn't hear a single THING! Tell me again, SHENLONG!"
Shenlong: I am sorry. You have ALREADY made your one wish. Thus I bid you farewell! (Vanishes as the dragonballs scatter once more across the entire planet)
Vetyga: (Falls in defeat to her knees) Noooooooooooo! And we STILL don't own DBZ! I should have used my wish for THAT instead! What a ripoff!
Rath: (Hiding secretively behind a large boulder while holding extremely large dragon-shaped remote control in her hands) What! You didn't think I would actually sit back and let her get away with it did you! (Winks at reader) Now back to the story…..!
.
WITHIN THE PAST WORLD:
Goten looked miserable as he sat down at the table in the eating area of the ship. He wondered whether or not it had been a wise decision to come along with his father in the first place…. "Stupid Frieza!" he whispered to himself. "If it wasn't for him, Trunks wouldn't be acting this way! It's all because of HIM!" Goten sighed. He selfishly hoped Vegeta got better soon just so that Trunks would talk to him again…. Trunks was the closest friend he had ever had! He really didn't want to lose his friendship….. He must have been really out of it, because he didn't even notice the hand that had fallen in concern upon his shoulder.
"Son…..?" Goku asked quietly.
"Oh!" Goten exclaimed in surprise. "Sorry, Dad!" he tried to say as cheerfully as possible. "I didn't even realize you were there! I must have been daydreaming or something! You know me!"
Goku didn't seem to buy it as he noticed the tears flowing down Goten's cheeks. "Is something bothering you?" Goku asked. He hated to see is son so depressed. It was so unlike him… "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
"Yeah, I know," Goten replied. "Maybe I just miss home…."
Goku nodded in understanding. "Don't worry! We WILL make it back! Where there's a will, there's a way!"
Goten forced a smile. "Yeah….. I think I'm feeling better, now! Thanks, Dad!"
Goku ruffled Goten's hair as he said, "Now, that's more like it!"
A loud beeping noise sounded from the control area.
"Hey! What's going on?" Goten exclaimed as they rushed in to see what was going on.
"I don't know….." Goku thought for a moment before pressing the brightly blinking button to the side of the control panel. A large communications screen slowly lowered down from the ceiling and a shaky image began to appear….
"Konskiit ngom khicht!" a blurry alien figure exclaimed angrily. "Uwt ten un menchu reprlim!"
"He's giving us a warning," Goku realized. As he looked out the main window, he could barely detect the outline of a large pitch black ship in the distance. It was hard to see, since it blended in so well with the vast darkness of space… Nevertheless, it was there coming straight for them! "We must be entering their space territory or something!" Goku exclaimed. "Man, I wish I knew what he was trying to tell us…!"
"Konskiit ngom khicht, Seijin!" the voice repeated, this time waving his arms outwards in a threatening gesture. "Uwt ten un menchu reprlim!"
"I do not understand," Goku tried to explain, shaking his hands back and forth in an attempt to demonstrate that he meant no harm. "We come in peace! We really mean no harm! Just…."
But the alien being interrupted, "Uwt ten un menchu reprlim, Seijin!" This time he clapped furiously and gestured downwards repeatedly. "Un menchu!" he said again before cutting off all communications.
"There're going to shoot us down!" Goku panicked. As he looked out of the window, he noticed the massive ship getting larger and larger every second. Its gravitational beams were pulling their ship in quickly towards it! "This can't be happening!" he exclaimed to himself as he immediately took action. "Goten! I want you and Trunks to stay in back! And do NOT come out unless I say so!"
"Right!" Goten exclaimed, swiftly heading off to do as he was told. "Trunks!" he exclaimed as he burst into the first room.
"Go away, Goten!" Trunks replied.
"Trunks! We're in DANGER!" Goten shouted angrily. "We may be under attack, so Dad says we have to stay back here until it's safe again…..!"
"Whatever!" Trunks replied, barely paying any attention to Goten's warning.
Goten shook his head angrily as he stormed out the room. "This isn't just about YOU, Trunks! Don't mess things up any more than you already have!" With that said, he headed towards the other room to watch over Mrs. Bulma. He honestly had nothing more to say to his former friend… Before he even made it into the next room, the ship began to shudder violently before suddenly jolting to a halt, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. Everything then became eerily still…. It seemed their ship had just been taken captive..…!
"Guchwey, Seijin!" a threatening voice boomed from just outside their ship's entry way. "Guchwey kau!" From the tone of his voice, it was clear that the alien being had NO INTENTION of negotiating with them, but Goku KNEW he had to at least try… Goku placed two fingers to his forehead as he latched on to the alien's ki signature and teleported to its location….
The aliens all jumped back in surprise as Goku suddenly appeared behind them. One of them fired a laser weapon at him, but Goku easily dodged it before it could even touch him. The other aliens fired several more shots at him, but each and every time, Goku remained untouched…. After a while one of them, dressed in fine dark silk robes held up her hand, causing the others to cease fire. Goku could tell from the way she was dressed and the way she carried herself that she was a very important figure to them. As she approached him, she started speaking in her native tongue, "Seijin keputom da con? Guchwey kau!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't understand you," Goku tried to explain.
The female alien nodded as she then said, "I see….. So you are not from around here….? And you are Saiyan?"
"You understand?" Goku exclaimed. It was true that she spoke it with a strong accent, but at least she could be understood. "What a relief!"
"Yes, most of us are capable of communicating in several alien tongues," she replied impatiently. "You APPEAR to be Saiyan, yet your demeanor is quite different….. And you do not speak in the Saiyan tongue… But the question is: ARE you Saiyan? Answer me, now! Guchwey kau!"
"I'm an Earthling," Goku replied after careful thought….. After all, that IS where he was raised practically all his life!
"I see," the alien female replied as she signaled to the others to put down their weapons. "Then you are welcome here. I am Galan. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused you..."
"Thank you," Goku nodded in acceptance. "My name's Goku!"
"I should have KNOWN you weren't Saiyan," Galan mused. "Besides, you don't even have a TAIL!"
Goku made no comment to this. 'Let her assume what she wants to….' Goku thought to himself.
"For your inconvenience, we will gladly repair any damages we may have caused and provide you with anything else you may need…" Galan offered. "I give you my word…"
"Actually, you CAN help us with something," Goku jumped at the opportunity. "You see, we have two injured on board that need immediate medical attention….. And one of them is critical… If you could help THEM…"
Galan nodded slightly. "All right, I suppose that is a fair enough request. Take me to them!"
"This way," Goku said as he led the way onto the ship. "Goten! Trunks!" he called out. "Bring Vegeta and Bulma here! We have some people here that are willing to help!"
"Coming, Dad!" Goten shouted as he carried Mrs. Bulma to the main entrance way.
"So this is your son?" Galan stated. "He looks just like you!"
"Yeah!" Goku smiled as he looked proudly at his son. "But you should see how much he's starting to look like my older son back on Earth!"
"And this is your wife?" Galan assumed.
Goku blushed slightly, "Uh, no! She's actually a friend's wife, but she had wanted to come along for the ride… Unfortunately, her hand got crushed pretty badly by Frieza…"
Galan stared with disbelief. "You mean you actually faced Frieza and LIVED to tell the tale?"
"Well yeah!" Goku replied, "It was easy actually! But….." Goku's voice became more solemn. "It's his OTHER victim who needs help the most. Frieza really took it out hard on him….. Goten? Where's Trunks?"
Goten shrugged. "He's probably still in the room sulking! I betcha' he's purposely ignoring you!"
"Fine, then we'll go to HIM," Goku motioned for Galan to follow him to the first room. "Trunks?" he called as he knocked on the door. When Trunks didn't answer, Goku entered anyways. Trunks was so busy looking after Vegeta that he barely even noticed them!
"Trunks? How is he doing?" Goku asked.
Trunks just shrugged. "What do you think?"
Goku's patience was wearing thin, but for now, he decided to disregard Trunks's obvious display of disrespect….. "Trunks, this nice lady is willing to help Vegeta, but I need you to be cooperative or this is not going to work!" Goku indicated towards Galan.
"Take him then," Trunks replied in a low tone. "But I'M coming with you!"
"Fair enough," Goku agreed, while Goten just rolled his eyes. Goten couldn't BELIEVE how RUDE Trunks was still being towards his dad! And his dad was letting him get away with it! He made a mental note to himself to do something about it later! After all, it wasn't right that Trunks expected EVERYONE to respect and care so much about HIS dad, when HE couldn't even show the same respect towards anybody else!
Meanwhile, Galan was busy trying to recall why the name "Vegeta" sounded so disturbingly familiar…. 'I KNOW I've heard it somewhere before…' Galan thought to herself. It wasn't until Goku lifted Vegeta into his arms (revealing the child's drooping tail) that she finally understood…..
"You never said he was SAIYAN!" Galan exclaimed accusingly at Goku.
"Why should it matter?" Goku replied in confusion. "Besides, he's just a child! And didn't you already tell me you WOULD….!"
The atmosphere became intense as Galan's eyes narrowed with pure anger. If she had KNOWN he was Saiyan, she NEVER would have agreed to help Goku! She was partly angry at herself for making the stupid promise to help him, but she was mostly angry at GOKU for even SUGGESTING that she and her people lower themselves to help a brat of such a despicable race! She felt no pity whatsoever for Vegeta's condition, but her people had a strong belief in keeping one's word… Thus it would be dishonorable and shameful of her to break it…. She was SOOO tempted to just say the HELL with the ancient customs, but she knew that she owed it to her people to follow through with it anyways… After all, what right had SHE to be the first to ever break the ageless traditions of her people?
"All right then," Galan said slowly. "I agree to keep to MY word, but I can't promise that the others of my race will be so easily convinced! Saiyans do not have a good reputation, you see. Oh, and you may want to keep him hidden with a blanket or something; or else there will be trouble for us all! THAT— I can be certain of!"
Goku decided to heed Galan's advice as they followed her aboard her ship…
As Galan led them out of the large inside dock area of the ship, Trunks couldn't help but think aloud, "Wow! Impressive looking ship!" And indeed it was, for as they exited the docks, they found themselves within the center of what appeared to be a metropolis of endless pathways overlooking a massive center courtyard! Everything was bustling with life as a countless individuals of Galan's own race hurried to and fro to go do whatever needed to be done at the moment. Nobody seemed to take any notice of Galan and the five strangers as they passed by. Nobody seemed to care at all—not even ONE! They all seemed to be extremely focused upon their tasks at hand, their expressions never changing. Appearance-wise, they were all rather pale in complexion… It was like they had no pigments whatsoever, with the exception of a few noticeable burgundy-ish colored spots and stripes placed rather erratically across parts of their bodies. Even their EYES were off-white in color! Most of them had no hair other than a narrow shimmering white waist-length pony-tail dangling from the very base of their skulls. They were certainly an intriguing people to behold sight of!
"Welcome aboard the 'GHOUL SABER'….." Galan stated as she led them all onto a strange triangular platform.
"The 'GHOUL SABER'?" Goku repeated.
"Yes, years ago there had been a very….tragic event, so we built this ship with the deepest and darkest of processed materials… Even though our ship is so immense in size, I doubt you even noticed it until AFTER we had already attacked! Am I correct?"
Goku nodded, "Although that still doesn't explain WHY you did it!"
Galan just narrowed her eyes. "NOBODY comes into our part of space anymore….. We couldn't help but be suspicious! We had only attempted to make contact with you to find out your intentions here! In the screen, however, you APPEARED to be SAIYAN, so we really had no choice…. Don't dare fault us on that! We have our reasons! Besides, it seems we were justified in our decisions….!" She stared with hatred towards Vegeta!
"He never did anything to you!" Trunks growled lowly.
"You all have some nerve bringing such an abomination into our province of space!" Galan said angrily.
"But we're ALSO SAI….." Goten started to argue, but Goku quickly clasped his hands over his son's mouth to keep him quiet. He suddenly didn't think it was wise to reveal that they too were of the race that Galan and her people seemed to hate so much!
"What he's trying to say is that we're ALSO saying that we want no trouble between us!" Goku replied, giving both Goten and Trunks a warning glance before releasing his hold on Goten. As soon as Galan helped Bulma and Vegeta, he KNEW that it would be imperative that they leave here immediately…..!
"Good then…." Galan said icily. "We are on the same page then, AREN'T we…"
Goku may have just been imagining things, but the atmosphere around them seemed to become so much colder with those words…
Rath: Well, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! I know that I enjoyed writing it! Anyways...!
To "Elvewin Darkdragon": I'm glad you liked this chapter! And I'm really glad that you like my characterization of Goten! I really do picture him to be a naturally sweet and loyal sort of friend… But too bad Trunks can't see that…!
To "Garowyn": Yep! Only Bra could ease the tension of such an uncomfortable 'showdown' between #18 and her beloved daddy! But then again, she IS a Daddy's girl! LOL!
To "kitten's love": Hey! I am happy you enjoyed my story so far! Little Vegeta is one of my most favorite characters. I thought it would be interesting to see both him AND his older self together in the same story (with a unique twist to it all!). They're both the same….. And yet so DIFFERENT!
To "Dark Ki a.k.a. Lee": YOU, my fellow Little Vegeta authoress, were my BIGGEST inspiration for this chapter! I honestly had no idea when I would be able to update again because my life has become EXTREMELY busy! But alas I became motivated enough to try even HARDER to set aside some more writing time! It really is nice to know that I actually have a few 'fans' out there!
Anyways! It's GREAT to know that you guys are enjoying the story so far! Please do continue to Read and Review!
Until Next Time! Sawatdee!