Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Saiyans Return ❯ Arrival on Earth ( Chapter 8 )

Saiyans Return

Chapter 8

Max grinned at himself, well aware that if Vegeta could see him at this moment; he'd be laughing his head off. As many times as he'd visited strange planets and cultures he really ought to be used to it by now. But the space pirate just shook his head and continued grinning. He still felt like a little kid while exploring a strange new place. And he knew it was why he had stayed with his ship even though the danger of the Empires seemed to have ended so many years ago. Max had to force himself to concentrate on piloting as the bridge detached itself from the main body of the Atlantis though.

He had always been curious about this planet. Vegeta had been here for nearly three decades. And Max had always wondered why. He knew better than to land here previously though. After all, he didn't want to attract any undue attention to the beautiful blue jewel below them. The swirling white clouds and rich blue oceans gave a very peaceful first impression, but this time Max was very curious to see what the planet itself looked like though. Vegeta had already told him that the inhabitants of this planet were not particularly interested in interstellar travel or visitors so he had given him coordinates for where to land that would not upset the normal populace... And oddly enough, that meant in front landing right in front of the home Vegeta shared with his mate, where they would be able to call the arrival of his ship, the test of a new invention his mate was working on or something.

As they descended Max didn't have time to look around at the planet or the buildings he could see taking shape below. He had too many readings to take and too much piloting to do, since his best pilot and navigator had both been taken by Durmast. Again he felt alternating waves of guilt and worry, but he tried to push his thoughts of his crew aside. Although it was a graceful ship for its size, the shuttle was still almost as large as the enormous yellow dome they were landing next to and he had very little room for error.

Max gave a sigh of relief as the ship touched down and settled gracefully to a halt. The computer finished taking its last minute readings and Max opened the ramp. He glanced at the six Saiyans he had brought from Kwanzaa. "Stay right there, in that exact spot, all of you until I let Dana know it is time. Is that understood?"

"Yes." The huge one, who looked disturbingly like Napa, nodded. "We will stay here."

Max turned to a near by Rhinarian and nodded. "Dana, wait at the ramp and listen for my signal. I know Vegeta will be anxious to get under way so I don't think we will be here long."

"Yes captain." She giggled, with a little salute.

Max took in a deep breath as he walked down the ramp where he could see Vegeta waiting for him among what had to be his friends and family. Max noticed Goku and Bulma and grinned at both of them, but he walked straight over to the Saiyan Prince. Max offered his ally his hand in greeting, which the Saiyan prince accepted in a warriors clasp. "Se Ceda, Prince Vegeta. Nedan te canso?"

"Se Ceda, Max. No se attan. De masa fasar, alajar taljina al-setae a Saiya-go."

Max started to laugh, but then turned to everyone else. Inwardly he couldn't believe what Vegeta had just told him, but from the expressions on the other faces around them, it seemed to be true. "I'm sorry, all of you. I had no idea that you do not understand the Saiyan language."

"You-you speak Saiyan?" Asked a dark haired, dark eyed Saiyan girl that looked even younger than Lima. She certainly was a pretty little thing, but her hair wasn't nearly wild enough to mark her as a pure blooded Saiyan. And she was leaning heavily on the shoulder of a girl who could easily have passed for a young clone of Bulma.

"Yes." The blue haired girl said. "Yes, he said `hello- very formal style, how have you been' and Daddy said `not bad and…"

Vegeta growled low in his throat. "Actually, what I said was I can't complain. The planet is inhabitable but I'm the only one on it that speaks Saiyan well enough to bother using it."

Max nodded. Indeed, that was the literal translation… but he knew this would be a good time to change the subject. "Well, Goku, and Bulma I recognize you, it is nice to see you again, but I'm curious to meet the rest of your party as well, Vegeta."

"I was just about to get to that." Vegeta smirked. "Trunks and Bra are my children through my mate whom you know. That one is Pan, she belongs to Kakarrot's oldest son who isn't here and isn't coming with us. Over there is Jenna, Kakarrot's mate, this one is Goten, Kai and Mai are their twins and the tiny troublemaker is Kayin also one of Kakarrot's."

Max bowed as Vegeta finished his short to the point introduction, grinning inwardly at how little the man seemed to have changed. "I am pleased to meet you all. I am Captain Maxwell of the Atlantis, but you may call me Max, and this is the pack of Saiyans I encountered on Kwanzaa."

Immediately the Saiyan gladiators appeared on the ramp, and Max nodded to each of them in the order that they were walking. "Tora, Corin, Lima, Augus, Celerin and Brock."

The largest, and obviously the strongest of the gladiators, Brock continued forward until he was in front of the others, where he dropped to one knee in front of Vegeta and bowed his head. The other gladiators followed his lead and also bowed. Vegeta's expression barely changed at all, but Max saw curiosity in his eyes as Vegeta told them to rise. Max grinned, knowing the Saiyan Prince was probably as surprised as he had been by how much this one looked like Napa. The enormous bald giant standing before them might as well have been a clone of the huge elite warrior- except that Brock was intelligent and had not seemed easily angered from what Max had seen of him so far. "Perhaps it is as you hoped, after all, Corin." Brock said in a low voice as he and the others rose to stand again.

"What do you mean by that?" Vegeta asked the huge Saiyan.

"Forgive me if I speak out of turn, but you look exactly like our former king. A male of the royal line is unmistakable; we all recognize you even though centuries have passed since Lord Orrin killed our king and queen to enslave our race and sent the two Princes of Gard'enia off planet where we feared you would have been lost forever."

"Lord Orrin…" Vegeta looked at over at the pirate captain. "Wait a minute, Max? Wasn't there a Lord Orrin that was some sort of a powerful Zarovian fighter enslaved by King Kold- I mean, it's been a long, long time, but I know that's a name I've heard before…"

"I asked Athena the same thing and she said it was in her records that Lord Orrin was the last of the Zarovian Kings actually. He was captured by Kold, along with his throne when his daughter was kidnapped and the Zarovians tried to rescue her. For 4 centuries Orrin and his bodyguards were forced to fight in front of crowds at Kold's palace until they escaped. Kold and a then very young Lord Koola were both away from the royal palace attending a huge celebration, Frieza wasn't even born yet and The Ice-Jin guards had kept the Zarovians under control for so long that they no longer saw them as a threat, so to make a long story short, Orrin and his men managed to hijack a ship. When Kold returned he was told that the ship and its passengers must have been too damaged in their getaway to get to safety, during their escape. But no wreckage was ever found and these guys describe the dead Zarovian race and its king in particular, too well for it to be a coincidence. Corin, you are the lorekeeper of your pack, why don't you tell them what you told me?"

"Lord Orrin never speaks of his past, we never knew where he came from, but our legends remember his arrival on our world very well. When the metal mountain crashed, it lit up the sky for several days, and many packs came to investigate what had happened. The great forest of our planet was destroyed for miles in a huge circle around the strange thing and the bravest of our warriors were just beginning to climb and explore the wreckage when it opened up. Faster than our eyes could follow, more than half of our warriors lay dead and in their places, stood 36 sleek, rather elegant beings with bright orange skin, yellow hair and blue eyes stood ready to attack again. Some of these strange beings were already injured. Some of them were so badly wounded that we thought we could destroy them, but each of them surprised us, showing more strength and power than even our mightiest warriors, even whole packs were destroyed effortlessly." As Corin spoke, Vegeta found himself thinking that he looked just like Bardock's friend, Tora from his team, but made himself to listen to the story. "Then a commanding voice ordered the strangers to stand down, for the massacre stopped all at once. When our warriors turned to look back at the ship they knew instinctively that this was the leader of the warriors that were trying to destroy us. He bore many terrible wounds on his huge body, and there was nothing left of his armor and cape but rags, and yet he carried himself with the strength and pride of a god. Lord Orrin ordered a few of his men to round up those of our warriors that were still alive and sent the others to find out what else was on our planet. Three days later, his men brought back what was left of our women and children. Even these were badly injured, some mortally wounded. Lord Orrin seemed amused by the spirit of our Queen, for even though she had a cub at her side and one in her belly she fought like a tiger and managed to get to the side of our King as he lay dying. Lord Orrin only asked our King and Queen to surrender one time. When they refused, he had the cub at her side taken and put on his ship. The invaders seemed confused about what their king was doing, but and Lord Orrin paid no attention to them, and the Saiyans were forced to help build a palace and several fortresses where all Saiyans would eventually be imprisoned and trained as gladiators. It took 5 years to complete these building projects, and although our people were getting stronger from the forced labor, not one of the invaders has ever been killed by a Saiyan. As our ancestors worked, we were sorted according to our strengths and the packs we were born into. But before we were put into our new cages, these fortresses, all of the Saiyans were brought over to the ship, where our Queen was asked again to surrender. The king had died of his wounds at the initial attack and she was only still living for the children their bond had created, when they took the younger cub from her too, the queen only laughed as she began to power up. Her final words were a promise that one of the two princes or one of their descendants would survive his schemes and eventually return to reclaim Gard'enia for our people. Our queen burned herself out to join her fallen mate, not knowing that Lord Orrin was not content to take only her sons. He took all the Saiyan cubs between the ages of 15 and five years and put them on his ship that had been repaired, and it left our planet while Lord Orrin and most of his warriors stayed to keep our people under control. After more than a year, the ship finally returned, but the missing cubs were no longer on it and Lord Orrin and his men never breathed a word to a living Saiyan whether they were dead or alive nor of what direction they were taken. Lord Orrin brought his way of marking the passage of time to our world with him, having landed in the year 543 A.D. Although it has been a very long time, some of us, mainly the lore keepers still hope that the queen's prophecy holds true. You must be the one! You are even called by our former King's name! "

"Well yes, Vegeta probably is, but how awful!" Jenna gasped. "Taking an entire generation's children away without a word or any hope of anyone being able to rescue them?!"

Vegeta growled, yes it was almost reminiscent of Frieza in its cruelty, and while if the cubs had been his; he would have defended them or died trying, Vegeta could think of several reasons it was a sound maneuver on the part of this Lord Orrin, for establishing control of his new territory. "Yes, it is a rather upsetting story, but its cruelty is what made it a good strategy. This Lord Orrin could be an interesting adversary if he still possesses the kind of intelligence to come up with a plan like that..."

"Would you like to explain that for those of us who weren't raised by an intergalactic tyrant and taught to admire ruthlessness, Vegeta?" Bulma growled at her mate.

Vegeta smirked. "Certainly, little minx. The Saiyans of Vegetasei were deposited there by a mysterious spaceship that the Truffle scientists were mildly curious about but true to their peaceful nature, didn't do anything about the ship or the odd guests it left them right away, choosing to just observe, which is lucky for us. If they were as young as you say, Corin, the cubs would've been more interested in survival and exploration than in observing and destroying the natives after realizing the Truffles were not a threat to them. If the Truffles would have been threatening, the Saiyans would have had no choice but to fight them, outnumbered on unfamiliar ground and hopelessly out done in technology and tactics, we would have been completely destroyed. And back on Gard'enia we would have been an entire generation that would have grown up to be Orrin's enemies anyway, so he would have needed to destroy some of them too as an example of his ruthlessness, his willingness to do anything it would take to stay in power. But even though the Truffles were peaceful, they were a danger to Lord Orrin too. Anyone who spent more than five minutes in King Kold's court would have known that the Truffles had some of the best tech available and that included the technology to find and even go and recapture him, bring him back to King Kold, so basically he would have gotten two birds with one stone by taking us to Vegetasei. But from what Max said, it sounds like whatever incompetent guards were responsible for his escape in the first place, managed to cover their asses pretty well with whatever they told King Kold, because he never hired his Truffle allies to go and retrieve his favorite pet warriors, apparently writing them off as dead. Tell me, Corin, does anyone ever see him? Does Lord Orrin still wear his Ki bracers? The ones like all of you are wearing?"

"Yes. All of his warriors have had theirs removed, but he still wears his."

"Indeed. All of you Saiyans, follow my mate, do as she tells you and don't touch anything. There are some tests we are going to run before we leave. Unbelievable." Vegeta chuckled, beside him Max whistled softly in agreement.

"What is it you guys?" Goku asked finally.

"Someone was dumb enough to give the King of one of the most powerful races in the universe, a master key to the only thing that could keep him from getting loose and terrorizing the universe with strength many times greater than what he actually possesses. King Kold, Frieza, Koola, Cell and the androids- all of them, even if they were somehow rolled into one being could have been dead at his feet effortlessly. The Ki bracers these Saiyans are wearing are usually used to lower the Ki of dangerous fighters during times when they are not needed to fight. But if a fighter is especially skilled but not very strong, these same bracers can make the warrior stronger and more dangerous for an indefinite period of time enabling them to fight on an equal level with beings that would normally destroy them easily. So what I'm telling you Kakarrot is that if this Lord Orrin and his ship hadn't been so badly damaged during his escape that he and his men were forced to stay where they crashed for a while, it would have been Lord Orrin that would have been ruling the universe rather than Frieza and the other Ice-Jin. By the time he could leave, Lord Orrin must have decided that our native planet was a nice place to rule."

Max nodded. "That, and if King Kold hadn't come after him yet, that he probably wouldn't, so why lift a finger when you don't have to? Zarovians are potentially even longer lived than the Ice -Jin and they are powerful fighters. In centuries past they were known the universe over for their skill and bravery, but they were philosophical about their strength, training and fighting to better understand themselves and the nature of their powers. Their entire race was involved in their military, something of a Spartan civilization, but when their King was captured, the whole race was enslaved and put into these bracers where those who still live, are matchless arena warriors. As a king forced to do the bidding of someone else, he probably just wanted to relax and be his own boss for a while again as it were. That and these guys told me that Lord Orrin has been in the business of breeding and training Saiyan gladiators to the Regency Empire of Wales and its protectorates for over a century. Why do business with the Ice-Jin held territories when there are other empires who don't know who you are or where you came from?"

"But Max, how in the hell did they keep it a secret for so long that there were Saiyans who are still alive?"

"The stalemate between King Kold, his sons and the Regency Empire has never dissolved and neither side has ever called back its border patrols either. Vegeta, you know there are no neutral spaceports to provide friendly contact of any kind between the two empires. The two sides have never had so much as a single colony moon within 8 parsecs of their side of borderlands, and they always agreed with Kold and his sons that I was a dangerous outlaw and were never very polite whenever they asked me to `Take the Atlantis elsewhere.' Isn't it odd how they stood against the planet trade but condoned slavery? Where did they think most of the slaves came from??"

Vegeta snorted, slapping the pirate on the back he grinned. "They knew, everyone did, Max. They might have been able to hide behind their technology and they used their alliance with the Elves of Talon to put on a good show of strength, but it was just a show, I don't think they even meant to honor it with Shinesta even when she was still alive. But when the Elves managed to continue to honor their side even after being absorbed by Frieza, and even after Arrianna assumed her sister's throne, let's just say Wales couldn't find a graceful way to bow out. It'll be the same when Koola's son ascends to the throne that belonged to his Grandfather and someone else offers an alliance with the Regency Empire, hoping for protection from the Ice-Jin."

"I'm getting confused." Goku said quietly. "I thought there were only three Empires- one for Frieza one for Koola and a bigger one that belonged to King Kold…"

"Actually there were a few dozen really large empires, that we know of but they are each self sufficient, so none of them have much to do with the others, if anything they are very hostile to eachother. That is to say that they don't rely on each other for trade goods and things. But even the few who were bigger and older than King Kold's Empire were afraid of the Ice-Jin for their strength and ruthlessness, and because Kold and his sons would have had no trouble working together is it meant gaining control of one of them. King Kold was personally responsible for the unification of three Empires that had been at war for more than 10,000 years before he was born. He could have taken more, but he also knew that easier targets waited further out in the cosmos. The other existing empires breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but all of them are still wary of the Ice-Jin. But, all the same, not all empires are bad; the next place we will be visiting is the Empire of Talon. They are small compared to those of the Ice-Jin or the Regency Empires and at one time they were absorbed by Frieza, but they are a peaceful, highly magical Empire that doesn't rely on technology or slave labor, and its leaders are the elves, a race that must be considered among the oldest and most beautiful of all people."

"Cool, but why go there?" Trunks asked his father.

"The Empress Arrianna is managing my holdings and my investments for me; I would like to check our resources before we find out the hard way if we need money or if we'll have enough. But more than that, I will also ask her if she can use her magic to point us in the right direction for where we will need to go to find Pan's bondmate, and I'm curious to know if she has found out anything about what the Ice-Jin are up to yet. I am willing to bet you will all find Talon and its people much to your liking when we get there. What do you think, Max?"

"I'd have to agree with you, Vegeta. I haven't been there myself in about ten years, I know I'm looking forward to it."

"Ten years, Max? I bet that little priestess of yours is pretty mad by now…"

"Actually she had been staying on the Atlantis with me until about three weeks ago, she was needed to help get ready for the Festival of the Moon so she went home for a while."

"Arrianna let a high Priestess of Shinalla leave Talon to travel with you??"

"Well you know Shinalla believes in promoting tolerance, gentleness and compassion through setting a positive example. Her priestesses are not bound to their holy temples even on Talon, their ability to heal others is unsurpassed, and there are still plenty of stupid warlords terrorizing small planets and systems that Frieza never took much interest in civilizing, even though they were part of his territories. There still seems to be a never ending tide of people in need of shelter and healing from what they have endured, so there was plenty of work for her to do on board."

"But you are certain she went back to Talon, though?"

"Yes, I don't want to imagine what would've happened if she had been here and Durmast found her- elves are a rare commodity anyway, add in her magic and her healing powers and she'd easily be worth ten times her weight in gold."

"Considering what elves weigh, she'd be worth a lot more than that Max. Besides, your little Priestess was a trained courtesan. She'd be the sort of thing one would give to a great king or something, no measly little warlord would get to see her, much less buy her…"

"You know," Goku sighed, "You two sure are depressing to hang around with."

"Sorry," Max chuckled, turning to look at him. "So, uh, does the legendary Super Saiyan prefer to be called Goku or Kakarrot?"

Goku blushed a little. "I uh, you can call me Goku, but Vegeta is actually a lot stronger than I am and we're both Super Saiyans, but so are Goten, Gohan, Trunks and Kai and even Kayin are all Super Saiyans too."

"Kakarrot," Vegeta groaned. "let's try not to upset the visitors too much. I have told you that we may be used to it here on Earth, but the rest of the known universe would probably suffer congestive heart failure if we were to, startle them, shall we say all at once…"

"I don't understand, your children are also Super Saiyans, how is that possible?"

Trunks just shrugged. "We don't really know. I mean, Goten and I just knew we could do it, when I was 8 he was 7, so we did. Kai hid it from all of us, for a long time that he was a Super Saiyan, because he didn't want to hurt Mai's feelings and Kayin- well, he taught himself how to fly instead of to walk and he could turn into a Super Saiyan before he could talk in full sentences, but he used to transform sort of spontaneously. None of the girls have ever been able to transform, but if one of them does, it'll be Mai, especially since Pan is so sick."

"Sorry, Max, but Super Saiyan 101 is going to have to wait a while longer, because the other Saiyans are coming back, and the last thing we need is to startle them or something." Vegeta said, turning to glance at his mate as Bulma lead them out of the compound and into the yard. "Well, what did you find out?"

"They are real live Saiyans alright." Bulma nodded happily. "Not only that, but they are genetically different enough to have had completely different family lines or clans or whatever you want to call them from both you and Goku on both sides of their family trees. Lima is Corin's daughter, but other than that the others aren't particularly close by blood, it's more like they associate together because they were grouped together based on age and power levels almost like a group of school children rather than a family pack. A family group would make more sense on evolutionary terms, and from the way they act you would think they are, but according to the tests they couldn't be… Why don't you look surprised, Vegeta?"

"Corin already told us they were separated into groups by power levels and clans. It sounds as if they were not allowed to evolve, they were bred, sort of like the racehorses of this planet, only as Saiyans they were chosen for all around fighting ability instead of sheer speed. We already know that he sells them to people too, so they aren't just on our home planet- but if we are lucky, this Lord Orrin is smart enough to keep the market on them cornered, meaning hopefully he doesn't sell them indiscriminately or we'll never find Pan's mate until she learns to control her bond. But if they only come from Gard'enia at least we will have a place to start looking."

Max nodded, but sighed. "That's only if we can find someone who has an idea where it might be, even Durmast either honestly didn't know or he has finally figured out how to lie after all the years I've known him."