Strange New World, That Has Such Creatures In It

Pairings: Gk/V, Gt/T, Gh/P

Disclaimer: Don't own nothin' of this.

Other Info: Goku never left with the dragon, Vegeta never cut his
hair, and everyone's alive. In other words, GT is silly and wasn't
made by the artist and I don't consider it cannon.

~*~*~*~

No light came into the Capsule Corps room, save for the occasional
car headlights as the workers drove home one by one. Split into
sections by the blinds, the light started at the window, moved over
the bare white walls and ran down the bed, disappearing just before
hitting Vegeta's eyes. The light only reached Goku's chest, exposed
as he kicked the blankets down a few more inches.

After the last delivery truck rumbled by, Vegeta eased out of bed and
dressed in his black spandex uniform. White boots and gloves went on
next, and he looked around the room, peering through the shadowed
corners. Goku still slept soundly, smiling and turning his head to
one side. Vegeta pulled the blankets back up over his mate. He shook
his head and walked to the door, opened it, and closed it behind
himself. A dull throb moved through his stomach, and he put his arms
around himself as he walked.

The Capsule Corps halls were empty and the lights dim. He passed by
Trunks' room, now shared with Goten, and a few minutes later Bulma's
room, shared sometimes by Yamcha. Their two ki's hummed quietly
together. After that came her parents' room, and then he stood
outside the lab.

One of the few people allowed access, he took off his glove and set
his hand on the pad by the door. The computer screen on the wall lit
up green. "Vegeta," he whispered, wincing at how loud it sounded.

The words Code Key Password came up letter by letter, followed by a
blinking cursor.

"Pride."

The doors hissed open and he entered, looking around the lab before
spotting what he needed on Bulma's work desk. He picked up the dragon
radar and left, the doors closing behind him. A few minutes later, he
stood outside in the cold night air as a light rain began to fall.
With a sigh and one last look at the building behind him, he flew
into the sky.

Tien had the first ball, but he and Launch never heard him slip in
and steal it from their bedroom. He glanced at them for a few
seconds, watching them sleep spooned against each other. Both of them
smiled in their sleep, and he frowned and left out their window.

The next dragonball lay in Roshi's house in the middle of the ocean.
He nearly stepped on the turtle when he slipped in, and he'd slipped
on two magazines on the floor, but he found the dragonball sitting on
a stack of magazines like a paperweight. He looked around at the
amount of porn magazines, discs and items he couldn't imagine the
uses for, but if he incinerated them, the old man would wake up.

The flight half across the world calmed him. Two balls lay side by
side in the midst of a coral reef, protected only by a few sharks,
stinging coral and an eel that bit his arm and wouldn't let go. He'd
snapped its head off and eaten the rest of it raw, though it didn't
sit well in his stomach.

One more ball sat a few miles away at the bottom of the ocean. All
the day's warmth had left the water and the water turned from dark to
black after a few feet down. He used his ki as a lantern, but the
glow attracted animals, things with no eyes and mouths so big he
wondered how its food didn't swim out of its stomach.

He found a whale carcass on the floor, a few sharks bigger than him
working off chunks of meat. The radar showed he was right on top of
the dragonball, so he raised the whale's mouth and swam in. A few
seconds later, he blew a hole through the top and swam out, the ball
in one hand. When he reached the surface, he gasped for air and
slipped the ball in his bag.

His next stop surprised him. The radar pointed the ball out in
Krillin's house. He couldn't feel any ki signatures that meant anyone
was awake, so he climbed in a half-open window and found the ball
inside the window seat. He took it out and turned to leave.

"What are you going to wish for?"

She'd probably felt him miles away. He raised the one-star ball and
stared at it.

"To go far away and never come back," he said. "To go home."

"Mm." She turned her back to him. "Good luck."

The valley with the last ball was also where he spread them out and
stood back. Cold morning air whipped through the valley, but he
ignored it. In a few minutes, it wouldn't matter.

*

Goku woke up fighting for breath. He sat up straight and gasped, his
chest heaving for several seconds, and he patted the mattress. He
looked down. His mate was gone.

"Vegeta?" He looked around. The bathroom was dark, the door locked,
the window...a cold breeze blew in. Where on earth had Vegeta gone?
He closed his eyes, feeling for Vegeta's ki. A sudden flare of ki
startled him and he jumped out of bed, running to the window and
looking out.

The dawn's early glare made him shield his eyes, but the swirling
energy outside wasn't a simple storm. Clouds gathered miles away,
nearly out of sight. His mate's ki came from the same spot, nearly
dwarfed by the dragon's energy.

"What...why's he making a wish in the middle of the night?" He shook
his head. His prince must have planned this out days in advance... He
put his fingers to his head and transmitted.

When he reappeared, the dragon loomed up over him. "Your wish is
granted. What is your second wish?"

"Vegeta?" he whispered.

They hadn't heard him and both turned now. Vegeta put his arm around
his stomach and took a step back.

"How?" he started, then shook his head. It didn't matter.

Goku stepped closer, about to touch him, when his mate backed farther
away and held his hand up. A ki blast swirled around his fingers for
a moment, warning Goku to stay away. But under that ki, and different
from both Vegeta's and the dragon's, Goku felt another ki burning
bright and strong nearby. He looked around for another person, but
each time his senses were brought back to Vegeta. He breathed
in. "Vegeta...are you...?" Ignoring his mate's warning, he stepped
forward, one arm out.

Vegeta looked up at the dragon with wide eyes and rushed out his
words. "I wish I was back on Vegetasei right now!"

"Your wish is granted."

Before Goku could open his mouth, Vegeta disappeared. The familiar
buzz in his head cut off. He tried to locate his ki first on earth,
then farther out. For the first time, he wondered how far Vegetasei
actually lay. The dragon returned to the balls, which then scattered
in streaks across the sky, leaving Goku in a cold drizzle.

"Bulma," he whispered. She was smart. She'd know what was happening.

*

A red sun rose on Vegetasei's first morning in half a century. Its
prince stood in the middle of the main city, thousands of white
buildings devoid of life, and he looked around as the wind blew the
sand across the open doorways. The pale yellow sun gleamed in the
sky, too cold to offer any warmth. Vegeta fell to his knees and wept,
the sole life form on a dead planet. Not even the animals had
returned.

The dragonball radar pinged.

He froze. Slowly, afraid that if he moved too fast the radar would
break, he raised the screen to his eyes. Five dragonballs, all
clumped in one spot, in the center of the city. Without questioning
how they even existed, he stood and began to walk.

*

"Vegetasei?" Bulma said. "That's impossible. He said Freiza destroyed
it."

Trunks glanced at his mother and Goku, still as panicked as he'd been
when he popped into Capsule Corp lab. "If Goku heard that wish,
perhaps father's first wish was to restore Vegetasei."

"But why?" Bulma asked. "Why now? He's lived here for years."

"Did you get into an argument?" Trunks asked. "Like a big one?"

Goku leaned against the wall and shook his head. "No, I woke up and
he was gone and when I found him he made his second wish and
disappeared and I couldn't get to him before--"

"Slow down," Trunks said. "Calm down." He exchanged a look with his
mother.

"What exactly did he do?" she asked.

"He...saw me..." tears squeezed out of his eyes and he slid down and
sat on the floor. "And he put his hand over his stomach...and every
time I stepped close he backed away."

Trunks knelt beside Goku and put a hand on his shoulder. "Pregnant?"

"I felt another ki inside his," Goku whispered. "He looked like he
was protecting it from me."

Another thought took Bulma's attention. "Could the dragon restore
life on Vegetasei?" she asked.

Silence as Goku tensed.

"No," Trunks said. "He'll be alone on an empty planet."

"I have to go there," Goku said. He wiped his tears and took a deep
breath. "I can't leave him like that."

"Even if Vegetasei exists, it'll take months to get there," Bulma
said.

"Then I'll be on a ship for months," Goku said.

Trunks looked between Goku and his mother. "My Raider Six is just
about built," he said.

"Trunks," Bulma whispered.

Goku stared at Trunks. "Can it get us there?"

"Sure. It made the Kessel run in .5 parsecs." He shrugged. "In
simulation."

"I want to get there as soon as possible."

"I should finish it in a few more days. After a quick test run, we'll
go." Trunks looked at his mother, who stared at their forgotten
experiment on the table. "I'll come back, mom. I promise."

She smiled and shook her head. "Don't make promises you might not be
able to keep."

*

Built from cut blocks of red stones larger than him, the city's
center building provided the only break from the white city
surrounding it. It loomed over the nearby buildings, second only to
the castle in the distance. He forced open the stone doors and walked
in.

Ebony stone covered the inner walls and the columns holding up the
ceiling. He hitched the radar to the hem of his pants and walked
through the wide open space, his boots echoing up the high ceiling
into the air. An altar lay at the very back of the building with
candles that should have been lit. He noticed mosaics on the wall and
moved by the first until he realized the picture depicted not some
religious hero he'd forgotten, but himself.

The figure on the wall looked exactly like him, from his wild shock
of hair to his white boots. Ki sparkled around his hands and eyes as
he strode into what he now realized was a cathedral to an old god.
Vegeta moved to the next mosaic. The figure stood before the altar
and five red balls with black stars. And in the next scene--

He blinked and looked again. Darkness, with only the hints of rubble
around the figure, and a black sinuous shape swirling around him. He
looked at the altar.

"They're dragonballs," he said. He walked away from the mosaics to
the five balls resting on the altar, humming with so much energy
their heat burned at his face, but he forced himself to look down on
them. Designed on the top of the altar lay one more mosaic, one word
in his own language...Kigeta.

Vegeta looked around the cathedral again. "No wonder they made it so
big," he whispered. His voice echoed back to him. With a deep breath,
he spoke in a language he hadn't heard in decades. "Come forth,
Kigeta--"

A rush of black energy rushed out of the dragonballs so fast and
strong that he staggered backwards, arms cradled around his stomach,
and watched it gather. Like solid smoke it passed around him,
blocking his exit and encircling him, and then filled the cathedral
until the walls cracked and buckled. For a moment, the energy
contracted, the walls held, and Vegeta didn't breathe, waiting.

The cathedral exploded.

Rocks and pebbles blasted in every direction, and he shielded his
eyes. Low laughter, like the rumbling of a storm, boomed around him.
The smoke solidified into black scales that shimmered with rainbows.
Ki so strong that it pushed on him from all directions radiated up
into a spiral, forming a halo around the head of a black dragon as
large as a mountain.

"Kigeta," Vegeta whispered, and remembered what the word meant. God.

The dragon looked at him, or he thought it did. Cavernous shadows
made up its eyes with excess smoke vaporizing around the edges.
Before he could move, it seized him in a clawed talon and brought him
to its face. He tried to guard his midsection, but the talon pinned
his arms to his sides.

"A Vegeta," Kigeta rumbled. He looked around the empty city, the
desert around it, the dry seas. "Where are they? My worshippers. What
has happened?"

"Freiza killed everyone," Vegeta said, wincing as the talon
squeezed. "Blew up the planet..."

"Then how are we here?" The talon tightened.

"I...Shenron...restored it..."

Kigeta loosened his grip, and Vegeta gasped for air. "Shenron? Why
was I not summoned? Why did that lower worm have to restore my world?"

"I don't know. I wasn't here when it happened."

The god drew him closer and Vegeta turned his head from the hot ki
rolling in the glowing eyes. "And where were you, prince?"

"In Freiza's service," he said. "A five cycle old brat used as a
bargaining chip."

"And why now, instead of as a five cycle brat?"

"I didn't know I could," Vegeta said. "I only came now to..."

Kigeta looked closer at the Saiyan in his claws and started to laugh,
a barking noise that thundered through the sky. "To protect your
little one?" He opened his talon and held Vegeta in the scaled palm,
laughing again as the prince backed against his claws. "Calm
yourself. I'd not hurt one of my faithful. But neither shall I allow
this world to remain empty."

With another talon, he swirled one claw in the dust and drew up
blades of grass. "Good." He looked over the horizon. "I haven't
created in eons."

All the ki of the dragon god gathered around him, growing heavy in
the air until Vegeta couldn't imagine how much strength it took to
hold it up and yet gather more. The ki turned black, filled with
every color of creation, and formed a thick cloud over the city,
stretching out of sight. Lighter ki flashed through the cloud and
stirred the wind up from a wasteland's breeze to the gales just
before a hurricane.

What in hell am I going to do? Vegeta thought, looking around for a
safe place to weather the storm.

Kigeta caught his thought and stared at him. "Believe."

Faced with his people's god, he could do nothing but believe, and a
hurricane erupted around them.

Out of the air, clouds gathered, white at first and growing darker
and heavier with passing seconds. Kigeta raised one talon and
gathered them into a point, until they sagged with their own weight.
He set them into a spin and threw them into the sky where they formed
a tunnel of wind and water that pounded on the land and on Vegeta,
who stared at the growing storm with wide eyes. The wind pushed hard
enough to blow him off the dragon's hand, but as he felt himself
slide on the slick scales, Kigeta curled his talons into a kind of
cage, holding him safe.

As the rain struck the sand, more grass sprang up, tall and yellow.
Thick trees curled out of the ground and twisted into shapes so
gnarled they looked like bushes. Flowers budded on their limbs,
bloomed, and turned to fruit within seconds, morphing so fast they
seemed more like water than plants.

A tail lash against the ground, and mountains broke out of the earth,
exploding in jagged points hundreds or thousands of feet into the
sky. The rain turned to dry grass pouring over the dirt, a tall wave
of yellow covering the ground and running up the mountains just as
the second sun appeared over the horizon, coloring the buildings dark
red.

Kigeta bent and dragged one claw through the mud. In a mad scramble
to escape the ground, animals pulled themselves out of the mire,
front hooves first and horned heads second. Vegeta recognized them as
the mud washed off in the rain, leaving scaly red hides, black fur,
or white fish catching the rush of water from the mountains back to
the streams outside the city.

A swipe of the dragon's talon through the sky left thousands of birds
in its wake, so many spread out and extending their wings for the
first time that the sky darkened, leaving Vegetasei shadowed for
several seconds. A bird larger than Vegeta, with shiny talons and
black feathers, settled on the tip of the dragon's claw. Kigeta saw
it and rumbled. "Go forth and screw."

The bird screeched its answer and flew off again, its great wings
beating hard enough to create wind. Kigeta lowered his body to the
ground and moved through the city, passing over white buildings
painted red in the second sun, coming to the castle and climbing
around the gleaming spires. He nestled in the nooks and crevices that
seemed specially made with his body in mind, able to see the entire
city, the land around it and the ocean glittering several miles away.
Vegeta stood and watched the world spread out before him.

"Now, little Saiyan," the dragon said, "we see how many of my
followers are truly faithful."

"But they've been dead for years and years," Vegeta said. "I thought
there was a time limit."

The dragon's eyes focused on him and flickered. "Child, do you think
for me there is a time limit?"

Though there were no more clouds in the sky, rain continued to fall,
and lightning sparkled around the castle in a swirl of light and
voltage. Each bolt struck the ground, digging deep into the clay.
Kigeta leaned his head back and roared, and Vegeta covered his ears,
still feeling the sound vibrations in his chest. Beneath them the
electrified clay shifted into humanoid shapes that twisted on the
ground, struggling to get on their soft, new feet. Stumps turned into
hands and lengthened into arms, legs, broad chests, shocks of hair,
fine features and black eyes that lit with the dragon's spark of
lightning.

"See, I have given you everything, even your own kind created in my
image."

Unconscious Saiyans lay scattered on the ground, naked and intact.
For a moment Vegeta could only stare at his reborn brethren, looking
from face to face and finding old acquaintances, but then the
dragon's words registered and he looked back up.

"In your image?" He thought back to the oozaru form and shook his
head. "I don't understand. You're a dragon--"

Kigeta laughed again and raised his other claw. "And I will not have
a stunted, mutilated child for my avatar."

The other claw came over him, trapping him between the dragon's
talons, and Vegeta pushed against the scales as they grew hotter and
glowed against his skin. All the currents of the god flew through
Vegeta's body, reshaping him as if he was another clump of clay in
his maker's hand, healing and bringing out a potential long rendered
inert by abuse.

Pain flared through his arms and legs, lengthening his skeleton and
renewing scarred muscles, recreating his tail. The forelocks he'd had
as a child now obscured his vision and reminded him of his unborn
child, and he wondered if this divine energy would scar it before it
could even be born--

The claws lifted off of him, light from the sun reflecting off the
scales and throwing rainbows over his body. He looked at his body,
reformed and humming with ki, and he did not recognize himself. A few
inches taller and less compact, he was glad for the spandex.

"What...what have you done to me?" he whispered. "My child?"

"Nothing that wouldn't have happened in a few more decades." Kigeta
looked him over and puffed out a little smoke. "And as for your
child...the son should always outshine the father. Now, I'm going
back to sleep." The dragon lowered his claw, laughing as Vegeta clung
tight, and gently dumped him on the ground. "Call for me when you
again have need. And this time, don't forget how." As if stepping out
of his body, Kigeta's spirit vanished and the black dragon dissolved
into a cloud of smoke, taken away on a passing breeze. Five
dragonballs lay beside him, a rainbow sheen on the black surface.

For a few seconds Vegeta sat in the sand, scanning his reborn people
as they groaned and turned their heads, slowly returning to life. He
lay his hand over his stomach. His child hummed with more energy than
before and seemed settled, not kicking as much as it had. He wondered
if it was asleep.

"Vegeta?"

He looked up. That voice sounded so familiar...

"Little brother, it is you!" Someone hugged him from behind, wrapping
their arms around his chest and snuggling. The wild mane of hair was
Vegeta's first clue, but the scent clinched it.

"Raditz!" He turned as well as he could and stared, looking over him
for familiar scars and touching his face. "You're alive."

"And you're so changed," Raditz said, touching first the prince's
spiky new bangs before running his hands over Vegeta's shoulders,
down his arms. "Fully healed and--my God." His hand stopped over his
prince's stomach. He breathed deep and looked into Vegeta's
eyes. "Please, let this one--"

"It's all right, I will," Vegeta whispered and set his hand on
Raditz's. "Later. There are others to attend to."

"And clothes, maybe," Raditz said. "But it is good to see you again,
after so long." He shook his head. "I thought I would never escape
the underworld."

Vegeta smirked and stood up, helping his former comrade as well. "Did
a bunch of demons want to put you through a washing machine?"

Raditz laughed loud enough to wake a few Saiyans. "And tried to make
me renounce being Saiyan. So many others went...I thought I was the
last one."

"A ploy," the prince said. "To make you lose faith."

"How is it you know so much about the underworld, little brother?"

"It's called Hell and I've been there twice." He looked around as the
other Saiyans stood, wobbly and disoriented, some too dizzy to stand
straight yet. Ki's hummed all around them in a single
glow. "Raditz...I can't pick out my father's ki. Where is he?"

"I'm here, son."

Vegeta turned and saw his father for the first time in decades. He
looked exactly as he remembered him, strong ki, commanding air, black
eyes that knew immediately whatever his son was thinking. "Father..."

King Vegeta found himself caught in a hug so tight his eyes felt like
they'd bug right out of his head. "It's all right, 'Geta. You're not
alone anymore." His son relaxed his hold and leaned against him, and
he lay one arm around his son's shoulders. "I'm here now."

"I'm afraid you'll disappear again," Vegeta whispered, not opening
his eyes. "You've been gone for so long."

"Too long," the king said. "How has this occurred? Is Freiza dead?"

A manic laugh escaped Vegeta for a moment before he could squash it
down, and he stood back. "Yes, Freiza is dead. He died several years
ago. Twice, even."

"Twice?" The king stared at Raditz, who shrugged. "What happened?"

"I...I'll explain it later. It's a long story."

"And we seem to have time now to hear it." He looked over his
subjects, most fully awake and examining themselves. "But first I
think I'd best find out who has returned with us."

"They seem to be elites, my lord," Raditz said. "I wonder--"

"Raditz!"

He turned. "Father--?"

A blur streaked across the ground and caught the long-maned Saiyan,
knocking him against a wall. "Raditz? Amazing! How has this happened?
I thought we were all dead! Has what--"

"Bardock," the king said. "Calm yourself."

When he heard that voice, Bardock only grinned wider. "Vegeta, how--
Vegeta?" He looked between the prince and the king. "'Geta?"

At hearing his old nickname again, Vegeta smiled. "Yes. I've come
home."

"And brought home back with you," his father said with a faint
smile. "Bardock, see to the survivors. I think we can put them all up
at the castle." He turned and faced his son again. "We have much to
discuss, you and I."

*

Made of gleaming metals and shaped like a manta ray, Trunk's Raider
Six sparkled in the morning sun. Goku and Goten stood with Bulma at
one side, watching as Trunks took it out of his lab and eased it into
position.

"I built it with father's memory of ship layouts," he said, "but with
a few improvements. It's a little heavier on defense."

Two ki's soared closer and they looked up at Gohan and Piccolo, both
of them dropping down to stand beside Goku, who kept his gaze on the
ship.

"Hi guys," Gohan called. "What're you doing?"

"Vegeta's gone," Goku said. "I'm going to go get him."

"What?" Gohan asked. "Where is he?"

"Vegetasei."

Piccolo watched Trunks fly over his ship, checking for weak points or
cracks in the outer hull. "How is that possible? Freiza destroyed it."

"Vegeta wished it back."

"But..." Gohan scratched his head and frowned. "The Saiyans wouldn't
come back. Could Shenlong even bring back the animals?"

"No."

Goten looked at his brother. "We're gonna go there. Trunks knows the
way."

"Whoa, wait a sec," Gohan said. "You're just gonna fly off into who
knows what and hope you make it?"

Goku nodded once.

"It'll be cool," Goten said with a grin.

Gohan glanced at his brother but ignored him. "But dad, how do you
know he'll come back? If he wished to go away--"

"He's pregnant." He ignored Piccolo and Gohan as they gasped, and he
closed his eyes, seeing Vegeta again that night, eyes wide, breathing
fast, backing away. "He panicked and went to the only place he's ever
felt safe. And I'm going to bring him home."

Gohan looked at Piccolo, who shrugged. A glance at Bulma showed her
as composed at Goku. Gohan took a deep breath and looked at his
father. "Then I'm coming with you."

"What?" Goku's mask slipped and he gaped at his son. "You can't come.
You have a life here."

"So does Goten," Gohan said. "And he's going."

Goten stared at his brother. "Well, duh. Trunks is going."

"And so am I." Gohan crossed his arms. "You'll need my help."

"Are you sure?" Goku asked. "You'll be leaving a lot behind. We might
not come back."

"I...I know."

Goku looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "All right. It'll be
good to have your strength with us if he doesn't want to come back
peacefully."

Gohan grinned. Behind him, Piccolo groaned and covered his eyes.

"Kami, four Saiyans on one ship? You'll blow yourselves up before
anyone else can."

"Won't happen," Trunks yelled from the top of his ship. "I've told
them no ki blasts inside."

"They'll forget," Piccolo said. "Or they'll fry the computer and
strand you in space. Or you'll get lost."

The tips of Trunks' violet hair sparkled gold before he smothered his
anger. "I will not!"

"Right." Piccolo sighed and shook his head. "No help for it. I'll
just have to go with you."

Trunks opened his mouth to snap at him, then looked between Piccolo
and Gohan. He smirked and rested one hand on his hip, laughing much
like his father did. "Oh, very well, Namek, but if you wanted to
come, why didn't you just say so in the first place? Guess you won't
mind sharing a room with Gohan."

A purple blush spread over Piccolo's face. "I didn't--"

"Great," Goku said, clapping a hand on his friend's shoulder. "The
more the merrier, I always say, and we can always use your wisdom."

"Or his body heat," Goten snickered.

"What was that?" Gohan said.

"Nothing."

"Oh, could I ask you guys a favor," Goku said, "and keep it down when
the rest of us are trying to sleep?"

Both Gohan and Piccolo turned a bright shade of pink and looked at
anything but Goku. Goku scratched the back of his head and looked at
his other son.

"Did I say something wrong?"

On top of the ship, Trunks fell sideways laughing.

*

Saiyans buzzed through the city, first finding their homes and
dressing before flying out and exploring the streets, finding out
who'd come back and who hadn't. Mate bonds began to re-establish
themselves, and Vegeta, from his vantage point seated in a palace
window, smiled when he saw every mated pair find themselves. No mated
Saiyan had returned without his mate. He looked down at his stomach
and the faint ki glowing inside. Well, almost none.

He heard his father's footsteps behind him and he turned. Dressed in
Saiyan armor with the royal crest and red cape, his father looked as
imposing as he remembered.

"I should have known you'd be here," the king said. "You loved
watching everything."

Vegeta glanced back at the city. "It's been a long time since I
could."

"How long?" He stood beside his son and leaned against the window,
watching his subjects. "You're much older than the last time I saw
you. How many years were we dead?"

"Nearly forty eight cycles."

"Forty eight?" he whispered. "God...you've lived your whole
adolescence away."

"I don't think so," Vegeta said, staring at his hands. "I may be
several years younger than that. I spent a long time in deep space
pods and tanks. And...Kigeta did something to me. I look different
than I did before."

"Different? How?"

"I..." He looked back out the window. "A few inches taller. Damn
forelocks...I'd forgotten how they get in the way. Repaired some of
the deeper scars. Regenerated my tail."

"Freiza--?"

"...not all of it. In truth, I looked worse several years ago. My
body's slowly been healing while on earth."

"And you destroyed Freiza?" the king asked.

"Freiza is dead," he whispered, "but I didn't do it. Kakarrot
ascended before I did."

The king took a step back. "Bardock's third class whelp?--he
ascended?--you've also achieved the super state?"

"Mm. Their battle destroyed an entire planet."

"Wait...can," he stared sideways at his son. "Can you show me?"

"The ascended state?" Vegeta stood and began to gather his power
together. "I've...only been able to achieve the second level,
though." Damned idiot whelp, he cursed himself, that I have to admit
it!

"Levels? There are levels?"

Gold light filled the room as Vegeta snapped into the first level,
then swirls of liquid gold spiraled around his body and he ascended
towards the second state. A second before he achieved it, though, the
light exploded around him and he tilted his head back as his ki
turned silver. His eyes passed blue and became white with excess
energy smoldering out the edges. His ki passed the point Kakarrot
needed to transform into the third level but his hair didn't grow.
His ki continued to rocket higher and higher until he cut himself
off. The light vanished without any fanfare.

"My God," his father whispered. "Just like the prophecies..."

"It wasn't like that before," Vegeta said. He stared at himself,
looking over his hands, his body. His eyes grew wide and he began to
breathe fast. "I could never reach that, not even half that, and I'm
not even breathing hard, and before I used to have to scream and
fight to make it appear at all--"

"Slow down," the king said, setting his hand on his son's
shoulder. "It's all right. You said yourself Kigeta restored you. Did
he say why?"

"Yes, that..." He growled and turned away.

"'Geta?"

"For a god, he's extremely blunt."

"What did he say?"

"That he didn't want a stunted, mutilated child for an avatar." He
clenched his fists and growled. "I don't care if I do look better, I
still want to beat his snout in for that."

"Avatar?"

Vegeta missed his father's startled whisper.

"Could've been worse, I guess," he said. "Could've called me short."

"You have become the avatar of Kigeta?" the king whispered.

"What?" he asked, finally noticing his father's look. "Is that
important?"

"Oh, not at all," his father said with a flip of his hand. "Just that
you've become the living channel for the dragon and his chosen
warrior. Dammit boy, don't you remember anything? You've been granted
the dragon's highest honor and you want to know if it's important?"

Vegeta's eyes widened. "What?"

"If reaching that first golden state was difficult before, and you
mentioned a level above that...you've always been meant to be
Kigeta's avatar. He merely restored that potential."

"So...all the power of the dragon is...mine?"

"You'll have to test yourself, find your limits, but for all intents
and purposes...yes."

The Saiyan prince turned to the window and looked out over the
setting suns, the old warmth bathing his face. He grasped the sill
and closed his eyes. All the power of Kigeta, that towering dragon,
his people's god, the lifeforce of the entire planet, all of it in
his hands, so much that it burned out of his eyes...when before he
couldn't defeat Kakarrot, couldn't defeat 18, couldn't defeat Cooler,
Buu, Frieza...

"It's cheating," he whispered.

"What?"

"This power isn't mine. It's the dragon's. It's a cheat."

"It's not cheating. This power isn't straight from Kigeta, it's
yours. If anything, you were cheated from your rightful power by
Freiza. You should have been this powerful from the beginning."

"Then why wasn't I?"

His father stood silent for several seconds. "I wouldn't presume to
ask what that bastard did to you--"

Vegeta winced as if he'd been struck.

"--but the abuse you took must have stunted your power."

"But Kakarrot--"

"Do you honestly believe Bardock's whelp could take what Freiza did
to you and come out unscathed?"

"Perhaps." He sighed. "He's strong. Unbelievably strong. A battle
genius."

"Oh, Vegeta...I forget how much we didn't have time to teach you." He
stood beside his son and put his arm around his shoulders as they
both looked over their city. "Yours is a different strength. You
survived a lifetime serving Freiza. How many others did you see
survive him?"

"His soldiers--"

"You know what I mean. How many other whelps were there?"

Vegeta looked away. "About a hundred at first."

"And at last?"

"Me. Sometimes he took on new charges as the old ones died, but...I
was the only one."

"And you think that's nothing?"

"You don't know what I had to do--"

"--to survive? I'm not stupid, 'Geta, I knew what I was sending you
into. I knew you'd go through hell and back. But I knew you'd come
back. If I failed, you were the last hope for our race."

"You think I planned this?" Vegeta swept his arm back at the city
outside as his voice grew louder. "I just happened to fuck up right
for once. I only restored the planet itself, I didn't know anything
about Kigeta."

"But you managed it anyway."

"Only because I--"

"--because you're childbearing."

Silence.

"How...?"

The king sighed and sat down in the chair beside the window. "Ours is
a violent species, Vegeta, quick to make enemies and get ourselves
into trouble. You think this is the first time we've been brought to
the brink of extinction?"

Vegeta sat on the window sill again. "It isn't?"

"Our strength isn't an accident. If every species culled themselves
as drastically as we do, they might rival our power. No, it isn't the
first time and I doubt it'll be the last. The first recorded time
came fifteen thousand cycles ago, when we warred with the Jindeska."

"The who?"

"Exactly," he said with a smirk. "We exterminated them, but only a
few hundred Saiyans survived."

"But at least a force that size could defend itself and breed."

"'That size'?" The king laughed for a moment and stared at his
son. "Vegeta, the Saiyan race was once nothing more but one pregnant
male on a backwater planet with enemies hunting him."

"Sounds familiar." Vegeta sat back down on the window ledge. "Unless
that male and child bred together, though, we must've crossbred with
other species."

"Yes, many times. I think the spiky hair comes from a species we
mated after our first cull, although that name has been lost to us.
The tails certainly come from the Oozaru."

"I thought...I thought that was merely our primordial state."

"To a degree, yes. We are Oozaru, just as the Oozaru are Saiyan. We
mated so closely that both species merged together." The king, seeing
that his son wasn't going to look at him again, leaned against the
window and watched his subjects buzz about like bees, their ki
providing the hum. "Always the merging makes us stronger."

Vegeta let himself smile. Trunks...you'll be stronger than all of us.
He lay his hand on his stomach. Except maybe this one. "Father?"

"Yes?"

"What does our name mean?"

"In our old tongue," his father said, "geta means dragon."

"And ve?"

"Of." The king popped the knuckles on one hand as he watched his
son. "Our line descends from dragons."

TBC...