Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ What You Got ❯ Well, never underestimate the underestimated ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 9: Well, never underestimate the underestimated -

It all repeated - every battle, every mocking retort, and every drop of blood. Nothing was different, except what Vejita did. He'd used the knowledge of the past to his advantage, ending every fight as quickly as possible. Each battle was like a movie that had been replayed an infinite number of times, and yet still his knowledge had not helped him end the expedition any sooner. He, Nappa, and Raditzu returned nearly a month later, to kneel before the white demon that sat in his little chair with Zarbon to his left and Dodoria, who was indeed alive, at his right. With skill that haunted his dreams he fell to the ground, one arm crossed to rest the elbow atop the bent knee. He sensed Raditzu and Nappa falling to their knees as well, as they had months ago. They were calm, at ease.

Then, Vejita had listened to the words that had enraged him almost to a point he couldn't control his instincts and emotions. How long would have taken Zarbon to destroy that little weak planet, a week a most. Like before, Raditzu and Nappa rushed forward snarling, ready to end life at the insults that had been reined upon them. Vejita was again forced to scream out their names, halting them mid-step. Loyal as they were, they froze and fell back, tails curling around their waist as they caught their breath - just like before. Every footstep was repeated; every blink had not changed. Vejita turned and stormed out of the castle after a bow and muttered apology to Frieza, and like before Nappa and Raditzu followed.

Outside of Frieza's self-named planet, as the dark sky loomed above them, the all to familiar scene replayed in his mind. Nappa jumped to his side, ranting about Frieza and his suspicions, echoing the rumors that Vejita knew were fact. Yes, Nappa, Frieza did destroyed Vejita-sei. Yes, I know. Yes, yes to all of your questions. Nappa was infuriated. He trembled with the desire for revenge, his lust overwhelming his senses.

So he killed my father, destroyed my people. That means nothing to me now. Strength is the only thing that matters in this universe; everything else is just a delusion for the weak. There's only one certainty in life, a strong man stands above and conquers all! Frieza is too strong now, but wait and see. As the last of the Saiyajin we have in our veins the blood of a warrior race. With each fight we got stronger and one day I will be strong enough to beat Frieza and then I will rule the universe - exactly as I was meant to.

Those were the exact words he had spoken twenty years ago, and once again they flowed from his lips. The meaning behind those words were as pure as ever. He still trembled with excitement as they appeared in his mind, each one with no less meaning than the last, and still every movement, every snarl was a repeat of the past, as if Vejita's mind was slowly adapting to his surroundings. Nappa and Raditzu were again shocked by the callousness and pure selfishness of the words, but he didn't care, and honestly they didn't either. They felt hopelessness and sorrow for the planet they had once called home, but Vejita didn't. It was a sad thing, but he hadn't lost much sleep over it. All that caused him to lose sleep was the fact that his race had not yet been avenged.

From the shadows, something different was happening, however. The Prophetess grinned from where she rested behind one of buildings of her Lord's planet. In her arms slumbered her tiny kitten, purring away as it dreamed. She giggled softly, running her fingers through the thick fur. The kitten awoke with a small cry. The Prophetess gazed down with a smile. "Through everything, he's learned nothing, young one. It's time he learned something amid the chaos and suffering of his life."

With a twirl, she stepped out from the shadows. Three sets of black eyes turned to her, two of them enraged at her trespassing. Vejita, however, stared at her with a small appearance of relief and hope. The Prophetess knelt down and released her kitten, allowing the small animal to rush off into the foliage of the forest that began a few feet away. She rose back to her height, brushing down the thin red fabric of her dress. "Shame on thee, Ouji," she smirked, watching his eyes narrow. Raditzu and Nappa remained still, only growing more enraged with each passing moment.

"This didn't happen… you changed it…" Vejita was on the verge of ranting as he watched her. "You… you're the key! You can prevent it from all happening the same way, can't you?"

The Prophetess only continued to smile innocent, but she shook her head. "Far from it, Vejita. Time is being rewritten, not by interference, but by decisions. Each choice that thee shall make decides how time will continue, and thou are walking along the very same path that thee walked along so many years ago. After everything… Vejita… thou still holds the same beliefs."

Vejita stiffened, staring at her. Raditzu was growling faintly to his side, and Nappa was threatening her, but each word that came from their ears was only heard by the wind. "So what do I have to do? How can I change it so that I was victorious, instead of him?"

"Thou must learn what thee has yet to, and thee can only do that in the time before thou believed it." With a smile on her face, the Prophetess stretched out her hand, fingers towards Vejita, and in a blink of her eye, the Saiyajin no Ouji vanished.

~*~

"I do not understand, Tousama."

It was much too familiar. None of it could possibly be real, and yet… somehow… for some chaotic reason created and played out by the Devil, Vejita knew it was. The hallway was dark, darker than it should have been, and it frightened him to no limit. He stood statuesque, afraid that if he moved, he would find himself at the edge of five, looking up into that terrifying face that made him want to sob.

"Why? Why do I have to go?"

The voice came from in front of him, and it was horrifyingly familiar. With just the sound of that quiet sob of a sentence, Vejita knew exactly what was happening. He knew where he was. He knew when he was. He knew everything that was happening around him… and he wanted to leave! He didn't want to be in this place where his life had been destroyed. Everything had begun here.

"Please, Tousama, Ou-sama, don't make me go!"

His father's replies were so quiet that not even the most skillful Saiyajin ears could pick up the words. It was something his father was very talented at, controlling everything, including his emotions. Vejita Ou had been a wonderful and talented Saiyajin no Ou, one that could not be predictable. It had been his greatest advantage. The world outside expected Saiyajin to be rash and easily played, and Vejita had proved that the Saiyajin on Vejita-sei were not all mindless senshi who attacked all their problems with their fists. The only problem he hadn't been able to settle was the problem of Frieza, and perhaps that was what had attracted Frieza to the Saiyajin race - Vejita Ou. It his father hadn't led the rebellion Vejita Ou would have probably survived also.

"Thou cannot change it," said a quiet voice in Saiyago. Vejita paused, his eyes looking next to him to see two small children standing together, their long furry tails intertwined behind them. Their bright faces were the picture of Saiyajin heritage - Elite, or at least first class. There was no human blood mixed within them, no blue eyes, or lavender hair, or smooth pale skin. They were darkly tanned, with sharp rough features that screamed power. Vejita stared at them for a moment before the male looked up at him. "We know of your siblings. We are not they." He spoke in a language that Vejita had learned briefly during his childhood, but despite everything he could not recall what planet or race he had learned it from. "Who are you then?" he responded in the same language.

"Children who exists, and yet do not. It's not important," the female child responded. They couldn't be more then four years old themselves, but very likely they could be much younger, three, or even two. It was always impossible to determine a Saiyajin's age. Power was all that was measured when the Saiyajins lived, and age held little effect on it. They sounded so educated, though. "Where is the Prophetess?" Vejita demanded.

"Always watching over the world, as the gods equal to her do," the male said, also in Saiyago. The switching of languages was beginning to confuse Vejita. They sounded so completely opposite, and yet in them held a common average conversation. He frowned, allowing his eyes to turn back to the dreaded hallway. "Why am I here?"

"You know why," the girl said. They seemed to be mirror images of each other, as if they were one person, speaking to another. Their tails remained intertwined together, waving softly as they struggled to achieve dominance. It was a common action between Saiyajin children, often done unconsciously, just out of instinct. It was possible the two would mate together in later years. "Go on, you know what must be done." It was the boy who spoke, but the words were hardly heard in Vejita's ears. His eyes stared down that dark hallway that seemed to scream for him to flee. At the end of this hallway rested something that could not be fought with violence. It could not be fought at all… and he was not here to fight. He was here to learn something that he couldn't seem to figure out, but was he supposed to learn by reliving the more terrible day of his life?

Before he realized it, Vejita was moving down the hall. One foot stretched forward before the other, forcing him across the dark black floor. His heals were silent against the odd texture. The lights that shone above casts pale shadows in the smallest corners of the room. There were no windows, and Vejita didn't know if the suns or moon was up in the sky. More than likely, it was the moon. He remembered seeing the half-full moon that day… when he'd been taken. He remembered longing for it to be full, so he could transform and save himself. Frieza knew nothing about the state of oozaru, and it would have caught him completely off guard, and, by chance, he might have been able to reach golden oozaru, and he would have been able to destroy that damned demon!

"Stop wishing!" came a snarl from his left. Vejita's eyes turned to see the female child standing in a doorway with her hands resting at her side, large black eyes glaring at him. He said nothing, his feet continuing forward, not allowing him to stop. He continued forward, eyes turning ahead again, trying to clear his mind.

"Preventing yourself from thinking will not teach you what you need to learn," came the male child's voice. Vejita kept his eyes ahead, refusing to look in the doorway where he knew the male child stood, in a mirror image of the female. Who were these children? Why did they torture him so? The voices were getting louder, and he could sense his father. He wanted to be happy to see Vejita Ou again, but there was no relief or happiness.

"Why, Vejita?" came the soft female voice again. Vejita reached the doorway and stepped through it. As he had known he would, Vejita found himself in a large throne room. His father sat on the step of the dais as chibi Vejita Ouji, himself as a child, knelt before the king with tears in his eyes. He had not cried on that day, but he had come so close. Vejita Ou was upset, hands between his knees as he stared into his son's trembling face. There was rage, sadness, disappointment, but most of all, something that chibi Vejita had not realized - fear.

Vejita Ou, Saiyajin no Ou, was afraid. The thought hit Vejita like a fist from Cell. Fear overwhelmed him as well, and he was ashamed of it. He knew why, though. It was the same thought he'd had only days ago. If Frieza could go through his father, nothing would stop the demon from destroying Vejita-sei. Vejita Ou had known this… and had done all he could to protect the Saiyajin race, by saving the Saiyajin no Ouji. Had Vejita held rage towards his father for the decision? He didn't know. He felt no overwhelming feeling of forgiveness, or of relief soaring through him. Still, there was little rage.

"It's called indifference," came the male child's voice at his side. The girl was on his left, the boy on his right. Their tails were no longer interlocked. Vejita stood between them, and for some reason he didn't like them. The children should be together.

"You have to be strong, musuko," Vejita Ou whispered softly. He refused to look in chibi Vejita's eyes as he said the word, and Vejita remembered just how much it had hurt. The first time his father had admitted proudly that he was his son he hadn't looked him in the eyes. There was a reason for that, Vejita knew, just as he had as a child. Vejita Ou didn't look him in the eyes because he felt like a failure, and calling him his son was an apology of some kind - it was pathetic, but it was the best the Saiyajin no Ou could do.

"I don't want to be strong," Vejita whispered. The thought had flashed through his head on this very day, but he had not said those words. It would have been shameful, and his father would have despised him for it. He had wanted to scream those words from the rooftops, but chibi Vejita had believed that everything would work out okay. It was a belief every child had, that they would all live happily ever after. Chibi Vejita had held that dream, clung to it as a sick child would a stuffed animal. He had believed he would be the Densetsu no Super Saiyajin, a king that everyone knew and loved, a loving father and mate… all of those things and so much more, and to achieve that he knew he had to be strong, but Vejita would have given anything then just to jump in his father's arms and sob, beg, and plead to not be sent away… into Frieza's arms.

Frieza's cold cruel arms… and his bed….

"I can't…" Vejita whispered. The scent of blood had filled the air. His fingernails had pierced the skin of his palms, and blood was slowly dripping from the wounds. He moved forward, but found the twins standing in front of him with a small flash of white. The two mirror images glared at him angrily as their tails intertwined. "There isn't a use. They can't see you, or hear you. You don't exist. You are watching, listening, learning! No stay back and learn!"

"Learn what! There is nothing to learn! This is the torture of a cruel god! Send me home!"

"Not until you learn!" Their voices shook the walls around Vejita, echoing as if they were a demon of hell demanding something they couldn't have. It caused Vejita to wince and clutch his ears, his eyes closing tightly against the sounds that could break glass and rip holes in dimensions. When the sounds vanished, his eyes opened, and the twins were gone.

"You have to understand, Vejita," Vejita Ou addressed his son in a quiet tone, a tone that represented death and loss. "The Saiyajin race does not exist because there are many of us, it exists in the blood, in the heart." Vejita Ou rested his arm over the royal crest of Vejita-sei, hands clutching the hard material of his armor. "It exists because we exist. It exists because we are strong, and that is all that matters! In the world, nothing but strength matters. You have a destiny to fulfill, Vejita. That is the destiny of the Densetsu no Super Saiyajin. It doesn't matter if you are the only one of your race left alive, you have that destiny, and that destiny has you. You must reach out and take it! Never let anyone prevent you from doing so, and if they do, eliminate them!"

"It's somewhat ironic, isn't it, Vejita?" came a quiet voice from somewhere. It wasn't the voice of the male or female child, but of someone that nearly caused tears to fill his eyes. The voice was soft and full of love, quiet as the whispering wind and beautiful as a moonbeam - the voice of a mother.

"Kaasama?" Vejita whispered, eyes looking around the room. There was no visual image of his mother, and despite everything he tried, he could not remember what the Saiyajin no Jo'ou had looked like. "Telling a child to kill everyone in their way…" the voice seemed to fade out with each word. Vejita gasped out, but he was prevented from calling for the voice when his father continued.

"Family, loyalties, it's all just something made up for those who are weak. If you must depend on someone or something other than your own power, you are nothing - certainly not a Saiyajin, and not worthy of the blood that flows through your veins. Learn this, Vejita. Learn it until there is nothing except your limits standing in your way. You will rule the universe Vejita, and your rein will begin when you have achieved the Densetsu no Super Saiyajin and have killed Frieza!"

The scream of the demon's name cast everything into complete and utter darkness.

~*~


TBC




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