Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Retaliation; the Trouble Inside ❯ Why the Prince is named Vegeta ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Dragon Ball Z or GT. Akira Toriyama created them and Toei Animation Co. licenses them. This is fan fiction! However, I do own the OC characters of the Archalisites and the idea of the Race Bank comes from my story Lost and Found; Royal Line Blues and Dr. Who.

 

Sunday, April 20, 2008

 

Time blurred again, and Trunks saw the world around him shifting. The entire ground quaked and trembled, and he and Tapion grabbed onto the nearby walls for support. Fountains of fire sprouted up from the ground, and the skies screamed with black smoke. People darted back and forth, their cries echoing as everything disintegrated. Trunks levitated, grabbing Tapion's arm as he flew towards the smoke choked skies.

 

“What's happening?”

 

“The destruction of your world,” said Tapion grimly. Trunks heard a low groan and turned his head to see the king as his retinue lying slain. Blood pooled around them. Quickly Trunks rocketed down and landed to see the writhing figures. As his booted feet touched down, he extended a hand towards the king himself. A gloved hand held his chest as the monarch pushed up with its other. One eye squeezed shut while the other half opened. Draped over his hunched figure were the battered tattered remains of his royal cape.

 

The King collapsed, blood dribbling from his throat as he wheezed and extended his hand to the skies.

 

“Vegeta,” he whispered, grabbing at his pendant. Rolling over he landed on his back, his eyes turning upward. Trunks instinctively crouched next to the King and slid one hand under his head. Despite Tapion's protests, he felt the figure for broken bones.

 

“What happened?” Trunks whispered.

 

“King… Cold…” coughed King Vegeta, blinking up into Trunks face with confusion. “Who… are you… you're no Saiyan…”

 

“Easy now… didn't I just see you surrender?” Trunks asked, his lip quivering in disgust.

 

“Trunks… you can't help him…” Tapion cautioned, kneeling to Trunks' right.

 

“Even my son was not enough… for him,” King Vegeta whispered. Trunks used a fold of the red cloth to dab blood away from the gaping cracks on his armor.

 

“Your Majesty, easy. You say he just… blew you away after…” Trunks stammered.

 

“It's all over. The end of it all. Slaves to an ungrateful… master. And I the biggest of all fools deserving of death for my weakness,” rasped the King.

 

“You had no choice… it was him or you… They just killed you all, in cold blood. After you gave up your son,” Trunks whispered, dropping to one knee.

 

“You… have the eyes of a Saiyan warrior, but your appearance is strange… who are you boy?” King Vegeta squinted, his glove reaching up to brush past Trunks hair.

 

“Someone who wants answers. And wants the truth. But I'm too late,” Trunks shook his head sadly.

 

“Trunks, we must leave!” Tapion shouted, grabbing his shoulder. “Leave them, they're already dead! They've been dead for forty years!”

 

“But I can't just…” Trunks trailed off. Lava bubbled up from the cracking ground. Shielding the dying king with his body Trunks felt the next upward blast searing directly around him. He heard his own screams and those of the dying echoing in his ears.

 

Darkness felt so soothing and cold in the vacuum of lifeless space. Opening his eyes Trunks realized he stood among the ruins of what had once been a city. He held nothing now, and was alone as he blinked in wonder. Battered and bruised the figure of Tapion rested a hand on his shoulder and Trunks blinked up at him.

 

“You almost died Trunks. Now do you see the last minutes alive of your grandfather?” Tapion asked.

 

“Yes, I remember it. As if it happened to me, and now I saw it through my own eyes,” Trunks shivered, cold dread seeping through him.

 

“Your desire to help him was touching. Surely not the actions of a Saiyan, but a human. Don't underestimate your human side. It is not weakness but strength,” Tapion reminded him. Looking at his knees, he saw his hands grasping something tightly, and slowly h e opened his fingers. Dangling from them was a chain, from which the blue pendant hung. Raising it before his eyes, Trunks beheld the pendant of the Royal House. Slowly he struggled to his feet, glanced around himself at the bits of statue, and ruined tattered tapestries.

 

People milled by, holding metallic computer screens and pointing. They babbled in dozens of alien tongues as they stopped to look at the pieces of what had been the Royal palace. Stunned, Trunks Realized he was kneeling in the midst of display cases and spectators leaning here and there to read signs in standard Tsurujin.

 

“The Museum of Archalisei,” Tapion grimly shook his head. “All that remains of Planet Vegeta was gathered here. Now the Archalisites all study the ruins of the dead world.”

 

Purple robed beings, with tentacle squid like heads led lines of strangely clothed felinoid aliens amidst the conglomerations of cracked masonry and statues of large Oozaru. Hanging on the far wall was a huge tapestry, with many names written in Saiyan script, each beside a large Oozaru, all connected with lines among them. Trunks figured it was a family tree, and he saw the familiar shapes of characters that spelled out the name Vegeta in Saiyan script. He had learned to read some of it during his childhood, in the games his father would play. Then the lessons grew fewer and farther between.

 

“See how the Idsarjin felinoids and the squid like Archalisites study and try to make sense of the bones of your culture,” Tapion murmured, leading him away from where they had once crouched. No one paid them much notice, and Trunks shivered at the angular sterile whiteness of the museum dome curving overhead. Other alien species that were vaguely humanoid strode, talking and chatting as their groups stopped then started again along the relics of Saiyan space pods, and everyday items.

 

“It wasn't for nothing that each king was named Vegeta,” said Tapion.

 

“All this, is that what's left of Vegetasei? Whose memories are these?”

 

“Your father's,” he pointed, and in one corner stood three Saiyans, in the shadow of one of the columns. Trunks wandered over, seeing a tall bald Saiyan with a moustache in black and gold armor towering over a small figure with spiky hair and white and gold armor. He leaned against the wall with arms folded across his chest, while a third spiky haired Saiyan held up a large sheet of paper marked with ciphers. From behind a large Oozaru statue, Trunks and Tapion watched the three Saiyans whispering with sneers on their faces.

 

“Disgusting,” snorted Raditz as he crumpled up the paper and tossed it.

 

“You got to admit it's funny. These poor drekheads have no clue what they're looking at,” Nappa snickered.

 

“It was even more amusing when that tour guide said that a space pod was an elimination chamber,” Vegeta snickered. Trunks eyebrows rose when he saw his father, or a much younger version with arms crossed over his chest.

 

“So, do we blow them up or what?”

 

“We must get what we came here for. If Tangelo is right, then we have to get the item before they do,” Raditz said as he scanned the crowd.

 

“What do we care about a piece of junk,” Vegeta mumbled.

 

“Sire the Royal treasure must not fall into the hands of these weaklings. You're the Prince, and it's your right to possess the Race Banks,” Nappa reminded him.

 

“Fine, then let's get on with it,” Vegeta snorted, as Raditz led the way through the tour groups.

 

“Why don't these idiots know Saiyans when they see them I wonder?” Raditz said to Nappa.

 

“Because they only saw us when we were blowing the crap out of worlds, or in this form maybe?” Nappa waved to the huge Oozaru statues. The three finally stopped next to a case containing several objects that made Vegeta himself frown.

 

“Son of a gradzek! The nerve!” Vegeta bared his fangs and growled at the items contained inside.

 

“Someone's sick joke, sire,” Raditz shuddered. Peering inside they saw furry brown objects lined up.

 

“Admiring the view?” asked someone to their left. All three Saiyans swiveled their heads to see an archalisei docent with his purple robe and tentacle hands curled around what appeared to be a long cane.

 

“Where did you get this… stuff?” asked Nappa as Raditz stepped between Vegeta and the view of the guide.

 

“We've been finding it for the last few years. This last batch came from Lord Dudoria. A sizable donation. Would you gentlemen like a tour of the Saiyan exhibit…?”

 

“Yes, we would,” Raditz said. “Won't we, Nappa??”

 

“Indeed,” Vegeta said from behind Raditz.

 

The eyes of the tour guide widened as he saw the short figure step out from behind Raditz. Suddenly Nappa grabbed him by the front of his robe and held him up. “What… are you doing?”

 

“We're MOST interested. And we want to know where a certain artifact is located,” Vegeta grunted, staring up at the budging eyes of the astonished guide.

 

“Let me go… this is most irregular!” gurgled the guide.

 

“Nappa, hold him. You should tell us exactly WHY you're hosting such a disgrace, and just HOW MUCH you paid Dudoria for this?” Vegeta demanded as he glared up at the guide.

 

“You… why do you want to know?”

 

Other tourists started to gather around. Armored guards approached, their guns upraised only to have Raditz raise his hand and generate a ball of energy. Nappa held the guide aloft, swinging him from left to right. “Let him go now!”

 

“Leave us be, or he dies!” Raditz shouted as he hurled a blast of energy towards the heart of the spectators. People screamed as the energy exploded with a flash. Nappa opened his mouth and spat his own blast over the crowd's heads, blowing a huge hole in the wall. Guns rose to cover them, the hands of the archalisei security guards tensed on the triggers.

 

“Now, stay back if you value your worthless lives!” Nappa barked.

 

“Stop it! I'll tell you! Just stop destroying the exhibits! This is an academic institution!” howled the tour guide Nappa held aloft.

 

“Two gold cylinders. About the length of my palm. Where are they?” Vegeta snapped.

 

“Over there…” the guard frantically pointed.

 

“Get them, Raditz. One of you show the way, or he dies!” Vegeta barked, pointing two fingers of his hand towards the nearest guard. A thin beam of blue energy shot out, hitting one of the guns. It exploded in the guard's face before he could drop it, knocking him flat on his back.

 

“This way!” another of the guides stammered waving frantically downwards another case along the far wall. Raditz strode up, scattering the crowd as he stomped in the direction indicated. Meanwhile Nappa wrapped his hand around the neck of his captive, holding him dangerously near Vegeta's glowing fingertips. Tension crackled thickly in the room as people whimpered and murmured in terror. Finally, Raditz punched the plastic on the top of the case, and then reached inside. His hands closed around two gold cylinders, gleaming in the light of the hot blue star shining overhead through the ceiling windows. It cast the entire museum in its sapphire glow.

 

“That's them, sire,” Raditz said, holding one in either hand as he triumphantly turned around and strode back to Vegeta.

 

“Well done, whelp,” Nappa nodded.

 

“Are we done here?” Vegeta glowered.

 

“Your highness, here is your birthright,” Raditz said as he dropped to one knee and passed the cylinders to Vegeta. White gloved hands reached out and wrapped around the offered objects. Holding them before his scouter covered face, Vegeta examined them closely.

 

“You… who are you?” gurgled the guide.

 

“Someone you shouldn't piss off,” Nappa growled. “Shut up!”

 

“Wait, he said your majesty,” whispered one spectator.

 

“Is he royalty?” asked another. Raditz eyes flicked back and forth, as he saw the whispering in the crowd.

 

“Shut up!” Raditz snapped, raising his hand with the palm facing up. Another purple sphere crackled into life there, shimmering like a spark of amethyst rage.

 

“Indeed Nappa, these are most useful,” said Vegeta as he slid both cylinders beneath his armored vest. “I seem to see some Saibamen kits here as well.”

 

“Yeah,” Nappa nodded. He reached with his free hand into one of the nearer cases and pulled out several vials containing small round spheres and a clear liquid. He hurled one towards Raditz, who reached out a gauntleted hand to catch it.

 

“You know what those are?” whispered the Guide.

 

“Of course we do, you fool,” Vegeta laughed harshly, throwing his head back. “You've no idea WHO we are, do you?”

 

“No…”

 

“You're looking at the Prince of All Saiyans, moron,” Raditz gloated. At the sound of these words, everyone moaned in fear, dropping to their knees.

 

“It can't be… your world was destroyed…” stammered someone.

 

“What was that?” Nappa blinked.

 

“It was destroyed by a comet,” Raditz snorted.

 

“But I heard…” began one of the nearest guides.

 

“Heard WHAT?” asked Vegeta.

 

From behind their wall, both Trunks and Tapion shuddered in mutual horror. The brutality of the three Saiyans was staggering, for the eyes of the aliens they held in thrall were filled with terror and rage. As one of the nearest guards suddenly fired, Raditz hurled his sphere of energy. Suddenly the room exploded with the sounds of laser weapons and the screams of the dying. Nappa's fist squeezed hard, cracking neck bones like powder before he hurled the guide to the side. Vegeta amused himself with aiming small blasts of blue energy at the escaping crowd as they swarmed through the nearest exits.

 

“Kill them all. Let none of this remain,” Vegeta ordered. Nappa and Raditz levitated into the air, chasing after the patrons and tour guides. As for Vegeta he grabbed the front of the nearest guide's robe and tugged the being close.

 

“Tell me how Vegetasei was destroyed,” he hissed. “Or you will ALL be destroyed!”

 

Black eyes blazed with warning, boring into the soul of the trembling guide. He stammered his mouth unable to form the words. “IT was a comet…”

 

“Don't LIE to me!” Vegeta snarled, his fangs bared. Liquid dripped in a puddle around them, and Vegeta stepped back and tossed the guide down in disgust. Still he pointed the tips of two fingers glowing with blue ki at the being menacingly. Rolling over the quivering mass of being shuddered and whimpered.

 

“It… it was destroyed by lord Freeza himself,” whispered the guide. “Now please take what you want and go!”

 

“I have what I want. Now you will pay for your services,” Vegeta snickered. A thin blue beam exited his fingertips, slicing neatly into the heart of the victim. Energy glowed brightly as he disintegrated into atoms. Soon only a pile of smoking dust remained.

 

“No,” Trunks whispered in shock. He turned to see the Prince watching the explosions of his men killing everyone in sight. Then Tapion grabbed his arm and the world again blurred into darkness.