Dragonball Extreme

Vegeta stormed through his house toward the bedroom. He slowed down a bit as he passed the kitchen; his parents were sitting at the table with Bulma, apparently having breakfast. He hesitated and stared at them for a moment. It was strange, seeing his father and former king sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee like anyone else.
He stepped into the kitchen and cleared his throat. \"Hn,\" he said. He nodded his head respectfully toward his father. \"Otousan,\" he said quickly. He straightened up. \"I\'m going to bed. I should be awake soon.\" He quickly walked out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom.

His parents stared after him. The elder Vegeta turned to look at Bulma. \"He didn\'t even acknowledge your presence,\" he remarked in surprise.

\"He\'s always like that,\" Bulma replied. She waved her hand as if it were nothing. \"If you weren\'t here he probably would have stormed right past, swearing the whole way.\"

Vegeta\'s mother made a surprised sound. \"Who taught him how to treat you that way? That certainly didn\'t come from us!\"

Bulma sighed. \"No one, I imagine,\" she said. \"But I don\'t know that for sure. He doesn\'t speak about his past much; most of what I know about him I know from seeing or from what Gokou\'s told me.\"

\"Gokou...\" Vegeta\'s father said slowly. \"You mean Kakarott, right? That\'s the name he\'s been going by on Earth?\"

Bulma nodded. She smiled. \"I\'ve know Gokou since he was little. He\'s always been a great friend, and he was great to have around for a bodyguard.\" She smiled again at the memories. \"He even took out the entire Red Ribbon Army by himself, something no humans would have ever tried. Of course, at that time, we didn\'t realize he wasn\'t human...\" She let the thought trail off.

\"Well, whatever he wants to call himself, he\'s grown into a fine young man,\" the elder Vegeta said. \"I can see why Bardock wanted to get to know him more. A lot of times I knew Bardock\'s visions centered around Kakarott because that was all he could talk about was his son doing this, or his son doing that.\" He grinned. \"You\'d think he was the only saiya-jin who had a son.\"

\"He never spoke of Radditz?\" Bulma asked. \"Radditz said he was Gokou\'s older brother.\"

The elder Vegeta sighed. \"No, he didn\'t; I know he saw things that happened while Radditz and Vegeta were under Freeza\'s command, but for the most part he refused to speak of them. Sometimes he would come out of a vision so horrified he couldn\'t speak.\"

Bulma nodded. \"I can understand that,\" she said. \"Things had to have been to fro from some of the scars Vegeta has. He hasn\'t got any new scars from sparring with Gokou and those two have had mountains come down on themselves while they were fighting.\"

Vegeta\'s father frowned. \"It takes a lot to scar a saiya-jin,\" he said. \"We heal fast; that scar that Bardock has on his face is from an injury that nearly killed him.\"

Bulma started to respond; she was cut off by a sudden burst of loud music; the wild, fast-paced notes flooded the house and threatened to drown out normal conversation.

\"What is that noise?\" the elder Vegeta asked. He winced a little at the sound.

Bulma listened for a moment as the music picked up and included lyrics. She could just barely hear them, but they were clear enough for her to figure out who\'s music it was.

Bulma grinned. \"Trunks and Goten must be sparring,\" she said. \"They\'ve taken to listening to loud music while they fight lately, and they have to blast the neighborhood out of their houses or they can\'t hear it over some of their blasts.\"

She walked to the door and looked outside. Sure enough, Trunks and Goten were in the valley below, their fists and feet clashing in a frenzy of blows.

The elder saiya-jin walked up beside her and watched his grandson and Bardock\'s grandson clashing with each other, bursts of energy crashing around them as they collided with each other and jumped back, continually trying to get an edge over each other. He was amazed at the speed and power they demonstrated in their sparring.

\"Amazing,\" he said. \"Do they always spar at full power like that?\"

Bulma smiled. \"Oh, they\'re nowhere near full power,\" she replied. \"They\'re just goofing off, exercising more than anything.\"

Seika had walked up behind them and was looking out at the young men sparring below. \"Well, I can understand where Trunks gets it, because Vegeta was born with such a high power rating...but to see that kind of power in a third-class warrior...\" She let the thought trail off.

\"Well, would they be willing to fight at full power?\" the elder Vegeta asked. \"I\'d like to see just how their power measures up.\"

\"I\'m sure they wouldn\'t mind,\" Bulma said. She turned to face the two young half saiya-jin. \"Trunks!\" she yelled.

The loud music overpowered her voice, and the two kept sparring totally oblivious to the fact they were being watched.

\"Trunks!\" Bulma shouted again. She sighed when she didn\'t get a response. \"I\'ll have to go down there,\" she said. \"Their music\'s too loud.\"

She had just started toward the edge of the cliff when a high-pitched voice reverberated across the valley. \"Goten turn that music down your brother is trying to sleep!\" ChiChi shouted.

Her message came across loud and clear; Goten and Trunks froze in mid-stride, and Goten walked over to their stereo and sheepishly turned it down.

Bulma chuckled. \"Leave it to ChiChi to be the loudest thing in this valley,\" she said. She turned her attention back to Trunks and Goten. \"Trunks!\" she called. \"You up for a tougher match? Your grandfather wants to see you two fight at full power.\"

Trunks shrugged. \"Sure, I guess,\" he said. He turned to Goten. \"I don\'t know why he wants to know what our strongest is,\" Trunks said, \"but I don\'t mind cranking up the power a bit. Let\'s just stay at level one, that\'s more power than he has for sure.\"

Goten grinned. \"Sure, no problem,\" he said. \"I can use the workout.\"

Trunks\'s grandparents watched in fascination as the two young men started to power up. Bits of debris started to raise off the ground around them, and wind whipped down and surrounded their bodies.

Suddenly, Bulma, Seika and Vegeta were brushed aside as a yellow-white streak of ki flew past them and dove into the valley toward Trunks and Goten.

\"What...was that?\" Seika asked.

Bulma rolled her eyes. \"\'That\' was Vegeta,\" she said. \"I don\'t know what those two did to piss him off this time, though.\"

Below them, Vegeta slammed full force into Trunks and Goten. He tackled them at the throats and pinned them to the ground. \"Don\'t you two even think of transforming,\" he growled.

Trunks and Goten struggled under his grip. \"Okay, okay!\" Trunks gasped. \"Let us up, \'Tousan!\"

Goten and Trunks stood and faced Vegeta. Trunks stepped forward and Goten was close behind. \"What\'s going on, Trunks?\" he asked mentally. \"Why doesn\'t Vegeta want us to transform?\"

Trunks glanced back at his friend. \"I don\'t know, but I have a feeling it has to do with his parents standing there. I don\'t want to cause a scene and piss him off worse, though,\" he replied.

\"What\'s the problem, \'Tousan?\" he demanded out loud.

Vegeta slapped him hard across the face. \"Speak to me respectfully, brat!\" he snapped. \"And the problem is that I never told you that you could transform!\"

Goten started to step forward, but Trunks held him back. \"You never told us we couldn\'t transform,\" he replied. \"And why all of a sudden? Is it because they\'re watching?\" He gestured toward Vegeta\'s parents.

Vegeta started to speak, but Trunks cut him off, knowing that it was just going to be inflated lecturing. \"You need to quit keeping secrets, \'Tousan,\" he said. \"If you want your parents or Gokou\'s parents to understand anything about how we live, then you need to let us live our lives normally and let them see and experience all of it. I don\'t care what things used to be like on your home world, we\'re living on Earth now.\"

Vegeta\'s fists shook with anger. He clenched and unclenched his hands, indecision about what he should do tearing him apart inside. He swung wide and his fist connected solidly with the side of Trunks\'s face; the young man had made no effort to dodge. \"Don\'t you ever presume to tell me what to do,\" Vegeta said. He turned to walk away.

Trunks nursed the bruised skin on his cheek and watched his father pace off angrily. He knew how to fight back, and he didn\'t even have to use his fists. \"You\'re a coward, \'Tousan,\" he said quietly.

Vegeta froze. \"What did you say?\" he demanded.

\"You heard me,\" Trunks said. \"You\'re a coward and a walking contradiction. All my life you\'ve been harping about how we should be proud of our strength and our heritage, and here you\'re afraid to even tell your parents that we\'re super saiya-jin.\"

Above them, the elder Vegeta looked startled. He turned toward Bulma. \"Did he just say \"super saiya-jin\"?\" he asked.

Bulma nodded. \"I can\'t imagine why Vegeta wouldn\'t want you to know,\" she said. \"It was the most important thing in the world to him, and he carried on like he was the greatest thing since sliced bread when he finally became a super saiya-jin himself. Maybe he wasn\'t sure how to approach the subject.\"

Trunks stepped forward. \"In fact, \'Tousan,\" he said, \"I think that as saiya-jin it is our right and duty to show them; there\'s nothing stopping us from showing how powerful we are.\" As he spoke, he powered up again, this time more quickly. Vegeta spun around in time to see his anger explode outward, forcing his long hair in tall, golden spikes around his head. Goten was quick to follow suit. The two of them stared haughtily at him with wide, aqua eyes.

\"You two think you\'re going to challenge me?\" Vegeta roared. His ki flared, and his hair turned golden; his tail lashed out in a fury of golden fur behind him.

\"No one\'s challenging you, \'Tousan,\" Trunks said calmly. \"But we\'re not going to be changing our ways or keeping secrets either.\"

Vegeta ground his teeth and started forward. He was halted in his tracks by a voice behind him.

\"Vegeta,\" his father said. He cleared his throat. \"We need to talk.\"

Vegeta shook a little at the sound of his father\'s voice. He powered down; he cast his eyes downward. \"Hai, Otousan,\" he replied. He turned to face his father.

\"I want the others there as well,\" the elder Vegeta said, \"to be sure nothing is left out and nothing is kept secret from anyone else. Bardock\'s been keeping secrets all this time, protecting me from things that scared him witless in his visions, and there\'s obviously things that even your own family doesn\'t know about you. That is not how saiya-jin are with each other, and it\'s not going to continue.\"

Vegeta swallowed hard. He was starting to feel shaky, and he fought his hardest to contain it. \"Hai, Otousan,\" he said again, keeping his voice down to hide the tremors in it. \"We\'ll meet where we did last night, in the center of the cavern; plenty of sunlight gets in there during the day.\"

The elder Vegeta nodded and walked back toward the cliffs. Vegeta watched him, never moving from where his feet were rooted to the ground.

Trunks walked up behind him and sat a hand on his shoulder. \"\'Tousan?\" he asked.

Vegeta brushed his hand away. \"You heard what I said,\" Vegeta said brusquely. \"I have to go gather the others. Make sure you two make your way down there, and bring Bra and Pan with you.\"

*

The group gathered in the cavern was milling about uneasily. Vegeta had been brief at best about what was going on, and he himself had yet to make an appearance. His father and mother were also not present, though Bulma had wandered in a few minutes ago.

Bardock leaned against the cavern wall and watched his sons uneasily. The three of them didn\'t seem to get along well at all; Kakarott was very obviously avoiding looking at either Radditz or Tales, and he could tell that Tales was very uncomfortable around Radditz after the revelation earlier. Bardock realized with a start that Radditz probably didn\'t know that he and Tales were brothers yet; the taller man had disappeared before anyone had said anything. That was something that was going to have to be cleared up immediately, he decided. And he was going to have his sons at least on a speaking basis before they were done; it wasn\'t right for them to be avoiding each other like this.

He saw his bonded partner, Vegeta, walk in with his mate and son just then. It was still hard to think of the young prince as their king now, but he put the thought aside. He had other matters on his mind.

The elder Vegeta left his son\'s side and walked over to Bardock. \"Something\'s troubling you,\" he said abruptly. \"What is it?\"

\"My sons aren\'t getting along,\" he said. \"I need to find out why they\'re not even on speaking terms. And I just realized that Radditz isn\'t aware that Tales is Kakarott\'s twin yet.\"

The older saiya-jin frowned. \"Well, we\'ll have to get that cleared up right away,\" he said. \"There\'s too too many secrets kept; I\'m going to see them in the open so we know where everyone stands.\" He looked pointedly at Bardock.

Bardock looked at his feet. \"I hope you\'re ready for painful memories to be dredged up,\" he said. \"You know as well as I do that not everyone has had as happy a life as Kakarott and those raised on Earth seem to have had.\"

\"I\'m aware of it, and prepared to deal with it,\" the older saiya-jin said. \"They don\'t even have real packs that they live with, just their immediate families. If they\'re going to live like saiya-jin, they have to understand how saiya-jin live. And they won\'t be able to do that until they understand each other first.\"

Bardock scowled. \"You always did think too much,\" he said. Then he straightened up and looked the other saiya-jin in the eyes. \"But, if you\'re going to pull out all the stops to get their secrets out, we need to put ours out on the table too.\"

The elder Vegeta read the meaning in his eyes. \"All right,\" he sighed. \"It\'s probably been long enough, anyway, especially now that Vegeta has taken his place as king.\"

\"Good,\" Bardock said. \"I\'ll let you and Vegeta handle most of it, but I want to get my sons straightened out first. They\'re not going to listen to one another if they can\'t even look at each other as brothers.\"

*

Bardock ran a hand over his face in frustration. He\'d thought that making sure his sons sat next to each other would help them tolerate each other more, but it didn\'t seem to be working; in fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect. He glared down at Kakarott and Tales, noticing that they were no longer paying attention to him, but were involved in a minor shoving match instead. Radditz was sitting behind them, still dumbly in shock from hearing that Tales was his younger brother, Kakarott\'s twin, in fact. Bardock heard the tall, long-haired saiya-jin groan to himself, and knew what must be going through his head. He was obviously in distress about the fact that he\'d had sex with his younger brother, even if he hadn\'t been aware of it at the time.

Bardock reached down and grabbed Kakarott and Tales by the tops of their hair. \"Both of you sit still!\" he snapped. \"You are brothers whether you like it or not, and you will be civil to one another!\"

He took a deep breath and turned his attention back to Radditz. \"And, there\'s something you need to know, as well,\" he said. Come up here.\" He gestured for Radditz to stand in front of him.

\"\'Tousan?\" Radditz asked quizzically. He walked forward.

Bardock reached for the red arm band around Radditz\'s upper arm. \"You\'ve kept these on, like I instructed you to,\" he said. \"I\'m glad to see that.\"

\"Hai, \'Tousan,\" Radditz said. \"I remembered you putting them on me; I guess I never thought to question you, I just left them on, as you said.\"

Bardock nodded. \"I want you to know the reason for it,\" he said. He slid his fingers underneath the band and quickly snapped it off, then did the same for the band wrapped around Radditz\'s thigh. The skin underneath the bands was much paler than the rest of his skin, having been deprived of light of any kind for years. He looked quizzically at the pale bands of skin. As he twisted to look, he caught a glimpse of a small, red tattoo on his arm, and another on his thigh where the bands had been. He swallowed hard; it was a symbol he knew all too well - the crest of the royal house of Vegeta.

\"\'T-tousan...wh...why...\" he stuttered.

Vegeta was on his feet in an instant. He looked at Radditz, then at Bardock and his father, silently demanding an answer. \"What does this mean?\" he finally said. \"Why is that lower class warrior marked with our family crest?\"

\"Radditz,\" Bardock said, \"I\'ve been raising you as my own; I\'d have had it no other way. But you must have realized that you looked different than Kakarott, and even how closely you resemble Vegeta...\"

Radditz shook his head. \"What are you saying, \'Tousan?\" he demanded. \"Of course I look different, people said for years how much I resembled mother. I was born a first class warrior, even, not an elite!\"

Bardock sighed. \"Yes, you were. And your mother and I were born third class. That should have told you something right there.\"

Radditz spun around, not willing to face Bardock. \"So you\'re saying you and mother raised me and pretended to be my parents, when you really weren\'t? For what reason?\"

The elder Vegeta spoke up. \"He had very good reason, Radditz,\" he said. \"And what you said isn\'t entirely true. Ninjin is your mother. But I am your father.\"