Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Prince and the Pauper ❯ Ch. 2 ( Chapter 2 )

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The Prince and the Pauper

-By BlackDeath

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~~Chapter 2~~

***earlier that month***

Kakarott groaned mutinously as he was bombarded out of sleep's arms by his bastard of an older brother.

"Get up, baka! Father wanted us out today before sunrise to milk the waerma."

The lump in the bed snarled, upper lip turning over his canines in a grimace of displeasure.

"More waerma? I thought that we'd given the last three you'd stolen away to the Ino Clan? Or have you distributed them in the black market again?"

Raditz flicked off an invisible piece of lint from his garments, nonplussed.

"Well... I did. But last night while you had your head burried in the pillow, I went back and aquired more for our little 'secret stash.' C'mon, get your scrawny, weakling of an ass up."

"Just lemme have a few more minutes," he droned, already falling into a peaceful slumber once more.

The long-haired Saijyan glared down at his brother, arms akimbo, as he lifted his leg and nudged the inert form with the metal tip of his boot.

Again Kakarott snarled, tossing a pillow in the general direction of his sibling.

"If you don't get the hell up, Dear Little Brother, I shall make you."

Opening one peevish eye, his exhaustion proceeded to slip from him like sheets of rumpled cloth.

They followed with the same routine every morning, both sharing a love of getting under the other's skin.

"So, you want to do battle this early Raditz? You might as well give up in advance, since we both know who always wins..." he trailed off, awaiting the usual banter.

"Why you egotistical little son of a bitch! You don't ALWAYS wi-"

"You know Raditz, you really shouldn't insult Mother like that. What would would Ookusan say?"

Kakarott fought to maintain an innocent expression, all the while trying to suppress a chuckle as he further antagonized his temperamental kin.

"Kuso! Your gonna get it now asshole...." Raditz huffed, lunging onto the bed, he grabbed the younger man, placing him in an `affectionate' headlock.

"Aaahhh! I'm just kidding you-!" Kakarott choked, swiftly turning an unbecoming shade of blue under Raditz's arm.

He laughed in triumph.

"I don't think that's how you apologize Kakarott! Come on, I want to hear you beg!"

"Never!" The younger weezed, though he was soon willing to forsake his dignity for air...

"Are you sure, Brother? Because from the way your looking right now, I'd say-"

The bigger Saijyan was cut off as Kakarott managed to snake out his arm and elbow him under the jaw.

"YES!" He cried.

"My, my, Kaka. That hurt. Are you really sure?" Raditz asked benevolently.

"I'm--sure."

"Are you sure that you're really sure..."

"I...can't breath you cretin!" Kakarott gasped, lungs screaming for air.

"Oh, so we're royalty now, are we? Such proper language. If I didn't know better I'd think your ass was being pampered in secret."

"Raditz, NOW!" He begged, at the breaking point, lips numb, eyes swimming in a daze of asphyxiation.

"Alright Little Brother, all you had to do was ask."

The younger Saijyan rubbed his slightly bruised throat, fingertips touching the skin there gingerly. He glared at his shaggy-maned brother, who's eyes shown with no small amusement.

"Yeah, whatever." He grumbled.

They lapsed into a fit of snickering, each chortle amplified by the mud-rock walls of their home.

"You know I'm really going to miss our early morning fights when I mate Toraka." Raditz commented, regret tinging the inflection of his voice.

Kakarott grinned, a rather rakish sight when he wasn't goofing off.

"Yeah so will I, but it doesn't mean we can't do it when I come over to visit you. Besides, you'll have 'alternative methods' of fighting in bed with her to keep you both busy for a while."

Raditz tilted his head to the side, smiling from ear to ear.

"I know, you're right, but even still, it won't be the same not having you around. Someone whom I've grown accustomed to beating the living shit out of when I'm bored."

Smirking wryly, Kakarott nodded, a licentious gleam in his eye. "True, though I doubt you'll miss it for long, what with that little piece of ass running around th-"

He was promptly accosted with a sharp slap to the mouth, Raditz laughing engagingly, though he'd meant it as a gesture of warning. Still, it couldn't quell the younger's exuberance.

"Mmmhhh...maybe your right. Oh well, at least I'll be getting a roll in the hay once or twice a day while you'll still be stuck here with Father, mucking in the fields and performing menial, low-paying bounty hunts till your old and gray."

Suddenly a darkness veiled Kakarott's eyes, though only quickly, before it was replaced with his trademark clarity and peace of mind once more.

If he had known him less, he would have missed it, but Raditz was no fool. He knew what that darkness in his brother's eyes was referring to. Had seen it in his own every time he looked in the mirror.

"I-I'm sorry eiosua, I didn't mean for it to sound..." He tried to apologize, though the words hung lamely from his lips, having little affect at smoothing over the tension that surrounded them.

But Kakarott was forgiving, at least. That much he could say for his family, if he had never any other reason to take pride in it.

"I know you didn't Raditzu, but it's just that.... I just can't help him!" Kakarott slammed his meaty fist into the wall.

Raditz understood.

He moved over and placed a supportive hand upon his passionate sibling's heaving shoulder.

"You don't have to say anything eiosua, I know what you mean. I too live with the guilt of hating oneself for despising a life where you must live with a daily reminder of what those damned royal scum did to Ookusan. He's now but a shell of his former self, since they took him from his place as an Elite. That's why I'm marrying Toraka. To get away. Though I fear to say I think he knows already the true reason behind my wishes to mate. "

Kakarott took this information in reluctantly, but with no protests.

"I know Raditzu, but it was just so unfair. Why did they do it? Everyone, every captain, soldier, general, lieutenant, and lowly cadet there knew that the Imperial Army was his life! Why did they have to be so cruel and rob it from him? He was in perfect physical and mental health! It's just so unjust..."

Bitterness infused is every word. The elder brother found solace in silence.

He shifted his weight uncomfortably, placing a tentative hand at Kakarott's shoulder.

"I know Brother, but it won't be unjust. Not for long at least."

His declaration was spoken with a finality that pricked the suspicions Kakarott had been harboring for his sibling as of late.

He narrowed his eyes strangely. "What do you mean by that?

Raditz caught himself. Had he truly just done what he thought he'd done?

He knew that he had said too much, and couldn't just walk away clean from this conversation with his plans still in his confidence alone.

The elder Saijyan had two choices. He could either brush off the comment, claiming it to be of unimportance, and it would only lead to further pestering from the one before him, or...

He sighed heavily, his heart weighted with unseen shackles.

It was time to tell him.

"Kakarott, I decided long ago that no matter what or how long it took, that I would do all that I could mortally possible to get our Father to come back to us from the pit of hell he's condemned himself to, wherever that might be. That's why I'm constructing a plan to rid Saijya of those royal pigs for good. They have no right to be held in a place of honor that they have not earned! I refuse to praise anyone who could cover his or her ears to our world's problems and let everything roll by as though it were fine. I won't see it happen anymore Kakarott! I'll go mad, for surely I will! We must do something before their black reign slaughters all that is held sacred in our people's hearts for good! We must avenge our people and our father! I just can't stand for it anymore, eiosua!"

Raditz wept in wild abandonment, all that had been plaguing him for the past few months stumbling forth from his tongue.

Shock swept through Kakarott's mind, angry torrents of confusion.

He had never thought that behind that mask of carefree indifference, his older sibling had felt such a roiling hatred for what was happening to their kingdom.

Quietly, near mutely, he gathered the courage to question his brother further.

"What would you have me do?"

Raditz looked up with mild incredulity. He had not thought that his unworldly brother would fully understand the implications of what it was he was explaining to him.

But apparently he had.

His lips curled in his mild pleasure, voice filled to the brim with sincerity.

"We shall steal all that the bastard holds precious. From the gold laden rings upon his fingers, to the very breath in his lungs, leaving him with nothing. In three days time, the moon will set upon the blood of Vegeta the King and all that carry it."

Kakarott was perturbed. "What are you talking about Raditz?"

The long-haired Saijyan chuckled.

"I'm sorry let me start at the beginning, I'm getting a head of myself. A few weeks ago I was sorting through the royal archives, looking for whatever dirt I could find on the Vegeta House when I found an old text. At first I passed it off as nothing of importance, throwing it to the side in my carelessness, when I discovered that some of the leaflets had come loose. Lole and behold, I find a manuscript that had apparently been lost in antiquity, something that obviously was kept in the secret records until only recently. Someone must have forgotten what it was and stashed it with the ordinary ones. No matter though, back to what I was getting at. It said that when the moon waxes each solstice, Vegeta the King and all that share his blood lose power. All power. It just drains away until the moon renews its cycle. Which in laymen's terms typically means a week. And in that time, and only that time, the strongest beings on this planet, become the weakest ones."

"But the House of Vegeta was fated to rule our planet since the day their first predecessor was born! How else could their line have lasted so long upon the Throne? Anything we would do to try and twist that would be beyond going against the grindstone, Raditz."

There was a fervor in his brother's eyes that Kakarotto wasn't particularly fond of.

"Lies, lies, all of them. That's been drilled into our head since the day we first began talking. You really have to question it, Kakarott. Why else would nature give them weakness if we weren't supposed to use it to our full advantage? To exploit it? That's life's way, Brother. Out with the old, in with the new. They've only hidden such so that there would be no opposition. They've brainwashed Saijya into believing that their line shall always be the righful rule of our Empire. Don't you see Kakarott? This is our chance! The one we've been waiting for!"

"You mean the one you've been waiting for," the younger Saijyan pointed out.

"Well yes, but that's besides the point. Just think of all the people we could help! I can give their lives back to them. This is our time now. We must take this moment for all that it is and strike!"

Kakarott still wasn't adequately convinced. There were still many unanswered questions.

"And how do you know that their strength is depleted now? How can you be so sure?"

Raditz grinned toothily, thrumping the other's back.

"You are smarter than you look. I'm an Elite, Brother and fortunately, have had plenty of time to observe them. I'm sure this is the moment. I don't think anyone else has noticed it...but I have seen the change in their presence. This is the time in which plans must be carried out. I've been contemplating them for a long time now, and I have finally found the loophole. I cannot let it pass me by."

"I think I'm beginning to see now Raditz."

"What are you beginning to see?"

"That perhaps you should have been one of those little librarians that spend all their time reading and fumbling with their alphabet. Really, I had no idea you even knew where the Royal Archives was."

"Hah-ha-ha. Very funny. But this is serious."

Kakarott's eyes hardened, a fierce gleam igniting their depths. "I know, and that is why I'm doing this with you. Danger will be around every bend, therefore I'm not letting you risk it all alone."

Raditz snorted. "So you suddenly declare yourself my bodyguard, huh? What makes you think I'll let you help?"

Smirking, Kakarott breathed deeply. "Because I won't let you carry out these 'plans' of yours unless I can be there to ensure your safety."

Torn, Raditz spared a glance at the door, as though in preparation to flee. But it turned out that submission to his kin's iron will was inevitable.

"Fine, do what you wish. But this will not be easy, Kakarott. Don't expect me to not try and detour you from this later, because I will. Do you have any idea what it is that we are actually setting into motion?"

"Probably not. But by all means though, enlighten me."

"Revolution Brother Mine, revolution."

***