Dragonball Extreme

Vegeta stood and slammed his hands down on the table as he stood. \"What do you mean, saiya-jin?\" he demanded. \"There are no others left alive! How can that woman be bringing four others here?\"

Lady Macbeth leafed through the folders Shukumei had left with her. \"Shukumei does what she likes when she likes; these four are being brought from the Otherworld. They\'ve been dead for many years according to the paperwork.\"

\"Who are they?\" Vegeta demanded.

Lady Macbeth pursed her lips and read some more of the papers, seeming to ignore Vegeta\'s question. After a moment, however, she picked up the conversation again, as though there had never been any hesitation. \"Two warriors rated third-class, a man and a woman. Two warriors rated elite, a man and a woman - the King and Queen of Vegetasei.\"

Vegeta paled and stepped backward unconsciou \" \"What did you say?\" he asked hoarsely.

Lady Macbeth raised her eyebrows and looked over the top of the folders at Vegeta. \"The King and Queen of Vegetasei - your parents, I\'m guessing. The files generally only refer to the person\'s title at death.\"

Vegeta shuddered slightly. \"Shimatta!\" he cursed under his breath.

Gokou sent a concerned glance in Vegeta\'s direction. \"Vegeta, are you ok? You don\'t look that well.\"

Vegeta shook his head as if to clear it. \"We have too little time to get ready,\" he said suddenly. \"Get the others up here; I want them all in one place when I get back so I don\'t have to keep repeating myself.\" He powered up and was gone out the door like a rocket.

\"What was that all about?\" Bulma demanded.

Gokou shrugged. \"Don\'t know. I guess he doesn\'t want to see his parents.\"

*

Radditz stretched lazily in the sunlight and opened his mouth in a long, silent yawn. He opened one eye and looked around. Birds flitted quietly in the trees above him, and the branches rustled slightly on a light breeze, causing the sunlight streaming down onto his face to waver in intensity. The tall saiya-jin blinked and sat up.

\"What the Hell happened?\" he wondered briefly. \"Where did I end up now?\" As he thought about it, however, he remembered. He remembered being forced on that stupid march to attack some enemy he\'d never seen. He remembered seeing his prince, Vegeta, alive and well, as well as his younger brother, Kakarott. He remembered...her. That small human woman - the one who\'d brought him here.

He shook his head as he mused to himself about the events of the day. He was certainly in a fix this time; he didn\'t dare show his face to Vegeta. Even if he did, he\'d never get close enough - Vegeta and Kakarott had seemed all but attached at the hip on the battlefield. Just what the Hell had happened while he\'d been dead? How did his prince end up living on Earth, supporting humans in battle, being close with that pathetic kid brother of his? Of course, he\'d heard about Freeza being destroyed - rumor had it, it\'d been done by a saiya-jin too. Still...that didn\'t say anything for what was going on now. And who were the other men there? One had been the spitting image of Kakarott; he must have been his son. But, Radditz thought he\'d recognized the long, wild locks of another man as bgingging to Kakarott\'s brat...it just didn\'t make any sense.

Radditz stepped down off of the fallen tree he was sitting on and walked toward the entrance to the glade. He was hungry, and there didn\'t seem to be much in the way of foodstuffs where he was. He walked out of the trees; suddenly his foot caught on something and he quickly stepped forward to keep his balance. He heard a startled cry behind him, and he looked back to see a small, red-haired girl lying on her back behind his foot.

The child struggled to sit up, then resolutely stood and toddled to where Radditz was standing. She lifted her arm and extended a fist full of daisies in Radditz\'s direction.

Radditz stared at her in contempt. \"Ch,\" he sneered.

The girl puffed up her chest and frowned, trying to mimic the gesture. She wrapped her arms resolutely around Radditz\'s leg and stood on his foot, as if daring him to move without acknowledging her. She lifted the daisies toward his face again.

\"Crazy Earth brat,\" Radditz muttered. He tried to lift the girl by the scruff of her neck, but found her clamped tightly to his leg. He pried her fingers up and sat her on the ground. \"I don\'t have time for your nonsense,\" he told her. He slapped the flowers out of her hand and stepped on them as they fluttered to the ground.

Large wells of tears formed in the small child\'s eyes, and she suddenly let loose with an ear-piercing wail. Her cries drew the attention of several other children who were in the yard, and they stared at Radditz and the crying child.

A young boy suddenly shouted across the yard. \"I\'m telling! You hit the baby!\" He ran for the building, his voice bouncing off the walls in a tell-tale singsong. \"Lady Macbe-eth! That big guy hit the baby-y!\"

Radditz looked up in shock, then back down at the child crying at his feet. \"Lady Macbeth...her baby? Kami, what did I mys myself into?\" He looked up at the castle; from what he\'d seen of the woman on the battlefield, he didn\'t want to be on the receiving end of her anger, and as strong and saiya-jin as he was, he still knew that the best way to piss off a woman was to mess with her children.

The tall saiya-jin quickly grabbed the child\'s hand and examined it. To his relief, there were no marks; he must have barely met her hand as he\'d dashed the flowers from them. \"Maybe if I calm the child down, she won\'t knhat hat I did it,\" Radditz thought. \"There\'s no marks to prove otherwise, and just the words of some kids who didn\'t really see anything.\" He quickly scooped the girl up into his arms. \"Hush, hush,\" he said quickly. He patted her awkwardly on the back, which to his shock only elicited louder cries. \"Stop that noise!\" he admonished. \"You\'re going to get me in real trouble!\"

The young boy ran back out into the yard; his sandy-brown hair bounced across his forehead as he bounded down the steps toward Radditz. \"M\'lady said to bring her inside. She said she saw everything.\" He wagged his finger at Radditz. \"You\'re going to get it, that\'s her special baby.\" The boy ran off to join some others.

Radditz trembled a bit. He clutched the child closer to his chest reflexively. He walked toward the doorway he\'d seen the boy emerge from.

As he stepped into the cool darkness of the hall, Radditz looked around. He didn\'t see anyone there, and he wasn\'t sure which way he was supposed to go. \"Terrific,\" he muttered. \"Now I suppose I\'m going to be in trouble for being slow, too. I don\'t even have a notion of where to go.\"

A small hiccup sounded from the little girl leaning against his chest. \"Amamama,\" she sobbed. She pointed down the hall.

Radditz shook his head. \"I have no idea whau sau said, kid,\" he muttered. \"But right now, I have nothing to lose; I just hope you know where you\'re going.\" He started down the hall in the direction the girl had indicated.

*

Gohan paced down the hall with Videl hot on his heels. \"Come on, Gohan, at least cut your hair to the way it was. If you\'re going back to work tonight, you\'ll need to look a little more professional than that!\"

\"Forget it, Videl,\" Gohan said. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. \"I can pull it back for work, and I\'m not doing anything until I know what Lord Vegeta thinks about it.\" He started to dial numbers on the phone.

\"You think no one\'s going to notice?\" Videl demanded. \"And what\'s with this \'Lord Vegeta\' bullshit?\"

\"I\'m on the phone, Videl!\" Gohan shouted. He plugged his open ear with his finger and leaned into the cell phone. He turned his back to her. \"Yes, Asa? This is Son Gohan.\"

Videl huffed and turned her back to him. \"You\'re impossible, sometimes,\" she said. She stalked off down the hall.

Gohan ignored her and continued his conversation. \"Yes, I\'m doing much better...thank you...Yes, I\'ll be in tonight; only one class tonight, right?...Good...Yes, you can cancel the sub for my regular classes...thanks again...bye.\" He clicked off the phone and walked away without so much as a glance back in the direction Videl had been.

*

Piccolo groaned and gripped the sill of the window he was looking out of. A sudden, sharp pain wracked his body and nearly sent him to his knees. He focused his mind on staving off the pain, but it was back again a moment later. He made his way to the bed and sat down.

Lady Macbeth suddenly appeared in the doorway. \"Lie down, Piccolo,\" she instructed.

Piccolo looked up at her and grimaced as another burst of pain shot through his body. \"What do you want?\" he growled.

Lady Macbeth smiled tolerantly. \"If you haven\'t figured out what\'s wrong by now, I\'m not going to tell you,\" she said. She walked over and gently pushed his shoulders down to the bed. \"I\'ve never personally witnessed a namek-jin giving birth, but from second-hand accounts and my research on you, I\'m willing to bet that you\'re going to be more comfortable if you\'re relaxed.\"

Piccolo frowned and clenched his jaw. \"I don\'t need anyone here to help me,\" he muttered.

\"Put your stubborn pride aside for a moment,\" Lady Macbeth said. \"I am certainly not going to leave you unattended for this.\"

Piccolo growled again, but the sound was cut off as he gasped from two powerful pains in rapid succession.

Lady Macbeth gently took his hand. \"Would you like me to have Gohan come in here?\" she asked.

\"No!\" Piccolo said quickly. He suddenly doubled over in pain. \"Yes...I don\'t know...\" he moaned.

Lady Macbeth shushed him. \"Try to relax, Piccolo,\" she said. She took a pager-like device out of xer pocket. \"Pigero,\" she said. \"Find Gohan and send him up to Piccolo\'s room on the double,\" she said.

Pigero\'s voice came back over the device. \"Right away,\" he said.

Piccolo screamed as his pains intensified. \"Take my hand, and try to calm your mind,\" she said. \"The rest of your body will follow suit.\"

\"You don\'t know...\" Piccolo started.

Lady Macbeth leaned down over him to look him in the face. \"Don\'t I?\" she asked. \"Don\'t underestimate me, Piccolo. You\'re acting like everyone else, judging me by my apparent age. You don\'t know what I\'ve experienced or how long my life has been.\"

Piccolo fell silent. He bit his lip and drew blood as he tried to stave off another labor pain.

Just then the door flew open and Gohan rushed into the room. \"What is it?\" he demanded. \"What\'s wrong?\"

Pigero came in shortly behind him and closed the door.

\"Piccolo\'s in labor, Gohan,\" Lady Macbeth said. \"I thought it best that you be here.\"

Gohan flew to Piccolo\'s side. He knelt down and took Piccolo\'s hand in his own. \"Piccolo! Are you okay?\"

A ragged scream was Gohan\'s reply. Piccolo squeezed Gohan\'s hand in a bone-crushing grip and writhed on the bed. He panted, trying to catch his breath.

Gohan turned to Lady Macbeth in a near-panic. \"Can\'t we do anything?\" he demanded. \"He\'s in pain!\"

\"I don\'t want to do anything that might interfere,\" Lady Macbeth explained. \"Wut hut having sufficient prior experience to help him by, I\'d rather he give birth naturally.\"

Piccolo screamed again and clutched Gohan\'s arm, digging his sharp nails into the pale flesh. Gohan winced and tried to draw back, but Piccolo\'s iron grip kept him where he was.

\"Piccolo...\" Gohan groaned. \"That hurts...\"

\"GOOD!\" Piccolo shouted. \"I hope you hurt WORSE than I do! This is your fault in the first place!\"

*

Goten stood over the pocelain sink, scrubbing soda out of his wild black hair. He looked over his shoulder to Trunks, who was standing behind him toweling his own hair dry. \"So just what is it that your dad wants us for?\" he asked.

Trunks shrugged. \"I don\'t know. I don\'t know what he\'s thinking most of the time. It must be important, though.\" He handed the towel over to Goten.

Goten shook the excess water out of his hair and took the towel. \"How much do you want to bet he pitches a fit about Gohan being gone? The way he ran off like that with that guy Pigero, and Videl saying something about him going back to work tonight...\"

Trunks frowned. \"Just as long as he doesn\'t make a scene over it. I hate it when he starts an argument when we\'re guests somewhere. He\'s so insensitive to people that way.\"

The two of them walked out into the hall. It was eerily silent, except for the occasional sound of a child\'s laugh or quiet talking.

Goten shuddered a little bit. \"You know, we really don\'t know much about the woman that owns this place...and somethings here are downright creepy. I wonder why Dad or Vegeta haven\'t said anything? They\'re usually the first ones to pipe up when something isn\'t right.\"

\"I don\'t know,\" Trunks replied. \"I do sense something different about her, but it\'s not evil as far as I can tell. It\'s kind of like being around Yamcha or Kuririn I guess...probably has something to do with the fact that she\'s a human and can use her ki to it\'s fullest. Not many people can do that, you know.\"

\"Yeah, I know,\" Goten said. \"But what about her reputation? And what are all these children that are running around? They can\'t possibly all be hers.\"

\"You heard what she said,\" Trunks replied. \"She\'s rescued them from bad homes.\"

\"But how?\" Goten stressed. \"If she\'s just a human who can use ki, how does she know where to look? How has she managed to stay out of trouble? There\'s no way that scrawny horse she was on when we first saw her out ran those police cars.\"

\"Good questions,\" Trunks replied. \"But as long as she\'s not a threat, I\'d rather not push the issue. We don\'t want to make her an enemy.\"

Goten fell silent for a minute. \"Ok,\" he finally said, \"I\'ll go with that. But you know if Dad says a word different, I\'ll -\"

\"I know,\" Trunks cut him off. \"But I\'m not expecting that to happen. We\'ll worry about trouble if and when it happens.\"

*

Piccolo\'s scream was suddenly cut to a gravelly cry, which drew Gohan\'s attention immediately back to the laboring namek-jin.

\"What\'s wrong?\" Gohan cried.

\"It sounds like he\'s far enough along in labor that the egg is interfering with his airways,\" Lady Macbeth replied. \"I was afraid this would happen; it\'d be nice to know how long it takes after this point.\"

\"Well, Piccolo\'s birth didn\'t take long, did it?\" n asn asked hopefully.

\"His father also had a hole in his chest, courtesy of your father,\" Lady Macbeth replied dryly. \"But I am hoping this proceeds nearly as fast.\"

Piccolo let out two ragged gasps and tried to cry out again. His voice was cut off and he fell back against the pillows in exhaustion.

Gohan rushed to him and put his hands on Piccolo\'s chest. \"I have to do something to help him!\" Gohan cried. \"At this rate he\'s going to stop breathing all together!\"

Piccolo threw his head back; his eyes glazed in pain and another ragged, muffled cry sounded from his throat. He sent out a telepathic plea to Gohan. \"Gohan...I...can\'t breathe...\"

Gohan clutched the sheets on Piccolo\'s bed in frustration. \"Piccolo...\" he sobbed. \"I don\'t know what to do to help you...\"

The namek-jin suddenly twisted in pain, and Gohan grabbed hold of him and held him tightly, trying to still the green form below him. He could hear Lady Macbeth protesting behind him, but her words and Piccolo\'s rough cries were blended into background noise as he clenched his eyes shut and hugged Piccolo tightly.

The half-saiya-jin man felt a sudden surge in Piccolo\'s chest, and he looked up to see Piccolo\'s head roll back into the pillow. A moment later Piccolo\'s cries were silenced all together as a white mass appeared, filling his mouth and throat. Gohan watched in shock and amazement as the egg quickly burst forth, and Piccolo fell back on the bed again.

His emotions were in a whirlwind. Part of him started to reach for the egg; however, as Piccolo collapsed back on the bed, the other part of him reached toward the prone namek-jin. All he could remember thinking was how terribly still Piccolo was; there wasn\'t even a detectable rise and fall of his chest as there should have been after such an effort.

\"Piccolo?\" Gohan cried in a panic. \"Piccolo, wake up!\"

A small hand suddenly rested on his shoulder, causing Gohan to spin around. Lady Macbeth stood behind him, the egg cradled in her arm, smiling down at Gohan and Piccolo. \"He\'s all right, Gohan,\" she said. \"He just needs to rest. And I think you\'d probably like to hold this.\" She held the egg out toward him.

Gohan\'s eyes widened. \"Oh, Kami-sama,\" he whispered. \"I wasn\'t even thinking...is it all right?\"

\"Seems to be,\" Lady Macbeth replied. \"Why don\'t you sit in the chair over there? I\'ll make sure Piccolo is comfortable.\"

Gohan took the egg from her and walked to the chair in a daze. He sat down and settled the egg in his lap, wrapping his arms protectively around it. He watched as Lady Macbeth brushed a cool cloth across Piccolo\'s brow, then straightened the pillows under the namek-jin\'s head settsettled a light, soft blanket over him.

A sudden, sharp noise drew his attention away from Lady Macbeth. He looked around quickly, then he realized the sound was coming from the egg os las lap. The sound was repeated, and to his horror he saw a crack spreading across the shell.

\"Oh, no!\" he cried. \"What happened? Was I holding it too tightly?\"

Lady Macbeth knelt down next to the egg and lightly ran a finger over the spreading crack. \"I don\'t think so,\" she replied. \"This isn\'t being done from external pressure; it\'s being done from the inside.\"

Gohan\'s eyes widened. Then, as they watched, the crack widened into a split, and tiny, dark nails poked through the shell. The top half of the shell slipped off to reveal a small, bright-eyed, green baby boy with a full head of wild black hair. Two green antennae poked up over his brows just like Piccolo\'s, and a brown tail was curled into his lap. Gohan stared in wonder at the tiny child, who smiled happily at Gohan.

\"Lift him out, Gohan,\" Lady Macbeth instructed. \"I\'ll take care of the shell and find him some clothes. You can use this baby blanket in the meantime.\" She handed a small, white, quilted blanket to the man.

Gohan lifted the baby out of the broken egg shell and wrapped him loosely in the blanket. He glanced over at Piccolo, who was still sleeping soundly, then back at the infant. \"It\'s amazing,\" he said. \"He looks so much like Piccolo, yet he also looks a lot like me.\"

Lady Macbeth nodded. \"He seems to be a perfect half-breed. It\'ll be interesting to see how the human that\'s in your blood affects him, but he seems to have gotten the best of the saiya-jin and namek-jin traits.\"

\"I\'m going to take him to see Dad,\" Gohan suddenly decided. \"He\'s going to flip; I bet he\'ll be thrilled to see Reed.\"

\"Reed?\" Lady Macbeth questioned.

\"His name,\" Gohan replied. \"Reed. I think it fits him great.\"

Lady Macbeth just smiled. \"It is a good name for him,\" she responded.

Gohan quickly stood. \"If Piccolo wakes up, tell him I\'ll be back soon; I just can\'t wait to show my dad!\" He rushed out of the room with the bundled infant in his arms.