Adult-FanFiction.org : Gundam, Beyblade, DBZ, FMA

Buying Radditz, by Talon and Manawolf	By : theonlytalonsage Category: Dragon Ball Z > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2029 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own or profit from DBZ. However Sage belongs to me. Hands off. He bites.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
by Talon and Manawolf

~~ See Chapter 1 for Warnings and Words to Know :-) !!~~
That's really the only thing he's got going for him, though.  When he opens his eyes they're rimmed with blood; harsh copper is all he can smell or taste.  He shies away from the mask, weakly, before remembering Trunks isn't an enemy and he doesn't have to resist him.  Not that he's any stronger than a kitten at this point, he doesn't have the strength to pose resistance to an under-powered cub, let alone... a... hm.
Is he supposed to be all glowy?  If Radditz was thinking straight he would realize it's ascension, but he's kind-of-really not.
"Th'nk so," he manages.  The sebba is little more than muscle and bone - too much of the latter - and he shivers.  His arm hurts where he bit into it, his joints hurt, he just doesn't have any reserves to cope with this trauma.  Shaking, he goes limp against the bed, working on the theory that if he's relaxed he won't have to support his own weight or hold anything steady.
Trunks chuckles a little bit and tones down his ascension a hair.  "Guess it'd be pretty hard to miss me.  Still, good to know."  He doesn't miss the shiver and pulls up another blanket, then warms them all with his ki.  Radditz has nothing in the way of reserves, he can see that.  Even without his ki, Sage is strong now and healthy, and he'll bounce back physically fairly readily.  Radditz on the other hand...they didn't have a tank on this ship.  If they did, he'd have Radditz in it so fast he'd be healed by the time Sage woke up.
He glances at Sage who still shows faint traces of blood in his ears and on his face, but his breathing is calmed now and even.  He heats the blankets up a bit more and makes sure they're tucked snug around both Radditz and Sage to keep the warmth inside.  "Try and rest, unless you think you can drink something?"  He's not sure.  He'd almost like to get a line into the far too thin Saiyajin, just incase.
Sage IS relaxed in his unconsciousness.  Entirely so.  That empty, hurting spot inside his mind is full and warm now.  He slips from unconsciousness to sleep fairly easily and turns in his sleep to be closer to Mama, tail coiling around the nearest un-mauled limb.
Radditz almost moves his own tail to reciprocate, but it's too much effort to budge the stiff joints even before any movement results in pain.  The warmth is good, and it's easier to breathe with the mask on, if still a little more effort than it should be.
Can he drink something?  It would be kind of nice to get the taste of blood out of his mouth.  It's fine under the right circumstances, but really, enough is enough, especially when it's his own.  But there's no way in hell he could hold a glass.
"C'n try," he manages.
"Right."  Trunks climbs off the bed carefully and out of the room and comes back in with a chilled bottle of electrolyte replacement drink.  He doesn't want to put anything heavy on Radditz's system right now, but he'd like to get something into the emaciated Saiyajin after that episode.  He's careful climbing back on the bed, and careful sitting on the other side of Radditz, and careful inclining him so he can swallow from the bottle he holds for him.  "Just a little at a time," he says quietly.  "I don't expect you to drink the whole thing."
He can feel how incredibly weak the collar's blow had left Radditz, in addition to everything else.  "'s gotta hurt," he murmurs, not even wanting to speak loudly, but not wanting to be silent either.  "This is Sage's favorite flavor," he comments as Radditz manages his first sip.
A smile quirks at the edge of Radditz' mouth.  "Had worse."  The Chirujin mechanism had been brutal, but over quickly.  It's almost harder to rely on Trunks for support than lift his own head; he's not used to getting any help with anything.  But he does his best to trust the strength of his son's ascended brother.
He can't get all that much down, and it's done slowly.  Sage's favorite flavor, is it?
"Y'know... more 'bout him n'I do."  He's missed so much - but gained, now, more than he ever thought he would.  Swallowing the drink was a lot of effort; so was talking, but he wanted to talk - to finally communicate with another Saiyajin - more than he wanted the drink.  Even if the electrolytes did make him feel better.
"He stays... w'you, right?"
"I don't doubt that for a minute," Trunks said.  Of course he'd had worse.  Sage would wake up with one hell of a headache though, that he wouldn't tell anyone about.  Which was fine because now there's two people who won't fall for his "'m fine" malarkey.  He turned up the oxygen once Radditz made it clear he couldn't drink more right now and made sure the mask was comfortable before answering.
"I dunno that I know more  about him than you do," he confesses.  "I know...I mean I've only known him for about a year and a half now."  He's pretty sure Sage's sebba doesn't want to get into the family disagreements about Sage's recovery or how he is compared to how he used to be.  "Yes.  He stays with me full time now.  Bardock stays close by, in the palace actually once it became clear Sage wasn't going to magically turn back into the cub he used to be and be able to live the life of a free Saiyajin with no issues whatsoever."  He makes sure the bottle is close to hand; it would keep cold for a long time yet.  Sage could probably get his sebba to drink more, and he'd prolly want some too, when he woke.  "There were also a few issues about Sage imprinting on Vegeta-sama's half-blooded heir," he says wryly.  "Not with me, I had a very long, solo trip with him after I found and bought him, but I'm sure you can imagine."
"Ah."  The completely obvious fact that Trunks wasn't full-blooded had fallen by the wayside in the midst of... well, everything else.  Radditz knew that had to present complications, and it was a mystery to him how Vegeta had managed.  Then again, he was the Ascended...
And.  So was his heir, apparently.  Did Sage have the same potential then?  With a third-class sebba, Radditz thought it unlikely.  Trunks' other parent must have been high-powered.
Then there was the surreality of Sage's immediate family knowing his parentage.
"How'd y'know... who 'is father was?"  Because Radditz sure as hell didn't tell anyone.  Sage had said something about biting and blood and bonds, and then there was this imprinting business, but Radditz wasn't quite coherent enough to put the pieces together.
So many other things he wanted to ask - why and how did Trunks buy Sage in the first place, did Bardock know Radditz was alive, how did Vegeta react when he found out about Sage...  He just didn't have the breath or concentration to ask them all.
"Well," Trunks starts then stops.  He chuckles a little and shakes his head, dropping his ascension back to his normal lilac haired, blue eyed self.  "It's kind of a long and convoluted story actually."  He picks through the salient parts wondering exactly where to start.  "Obviously you don't know me.  My...uh...existence became public not quite a year after you and Sage went MIA.  We can talk about all that later.  The reason I mention it is because my father assigned guards for me and my mother, and two of them were from your family.   Dad was kind of pissed there were only two, and I couldn't figure out why.  Then Mom got worried about him.  I still couldn't figure out the difference in his...well angry moods but she was really good at it.  Things settled down after awhile and I got to know people, Turles in particular."
He pauses to think about that time.  All the diplomatic stuff, REALLY getting to know his father, learning about who he was really and what he could do.  And just like any kid he was happy to see his parents together.  Sure he missed home, but Mom was happy, and so was his father and one of the reasons they'd decided to bring him to Vegitasei happened just a couple of years after they'd settled.  Awakening.  First it was his Ascension, which had been a HUGE deal since he'd only seen his father a couple of times a year, tops.  He shakes his head, clearing it out.  Radditz doesn't need to hear all about that right now.  He'll hear about it all soon enough if he knows Sage.
"So anyway, I got to know the guard rotations.  And I noticed Turles and Kakkarot's were different than the others.  Turles would be on leave for a couple of weeks or sometimes a month or two at a time, and he was never on planet then.  Kakkarot was harder to pin down, how I'm still not exactly sure.  I finally got up the nerve to ask Turles what he did when he wasn't on guard duty and he told me about his big brother and nephew who were MIA and presumed first to be POW's but never showed up on the lists.  I found out he spent his time off, and he got blocks of time off like that because he was searching slave auctions all over, and finding the occasional captive Saiyajin, looking for you and Sage.  Long story short, that's how I got involved.  I still didn't know I was searching for my brother mind you, Turles never let on anything like that.  I dunno whether he knew or not.  Your family's very cagey about that kind of information even though he's safe now."  He reaches over to stroke Sage's cheek with a finger and smiles a little.
"A year and a half ago I managed to buy my way into a very elite auction.  Very exclusive.  Very specialized."  He stops and takes a few deep breaths.  "I'd thought I'd seen just about everything.  Thought I could handle anything.  I'd rescued a few cubs before, but they'd not been enslaved long.  And they had been older when they were captured.  It was a very small auction and they brought him out last.  And I couldn't take my eyes off him.  He looked terrible, but he struggled every step of the way.  When his scent hit my nose I swear I thought I was going to wreck the place.  Never had a reaction like that.  And I didn't even recognize it, y'know?  It took two handlers to get him to hold still enough so the buyers could look him over.  Obviously I bought him.  Don't need to go into that right now.  He howled when I got close, to pay and they drugged him, right then and there.  I had to carry him back to the ship.  Not like it was hard.  He was a lot smaller then.  I got his collar off while he was still loopy and out of it, and I was about halfway through cleaning him up when he turned around and bit the HELL out of me.  The weird thing about it was he never raised his ki...and neither did I.  I just...let him bite me.  A lot.  And every time he did he calmed down a little more.  Then the bond hit me, and I had no clue what to make of THAT.  So I ran DNA.  It matched mine and my father's, and Turles'.  And that's how I found out who his father was."  He grins a little.  "Kinda long winded, but believe me, that's the shortened, condensed version.  What else d'you want to know?"
MIA, POW... It had been so long since Radditz had thought about the outside perspective of his situation.  Even about the fact that his family would have been trying to find him.  He was mildly surprised, although he shouldn't have been, to hear the small clan had still been searching for him so many years later.  It's not that he'd thought they would have given up, but... just that the thought of rescue had been so far out of bounds that he stopped wasting energy on it.  It couldn't happen, wouldn't happen... but now it had.
Trunks' speech pattern is interesting; there was no third-class slur, or elite bravado.  Radditz had to assume that came from his mother, and was passingly curious about the species, but there was so much else to ask and to hear.
He purred a little when Trunks spoke of Vegeta, of Bardock and his brothers, and Sage.  Of course Sage would have been an absolute little terror.  It was infinitely better than the alternative, and almost made Radditz ashamed of his relative compliance, but he knew they had both done what was necessary for survival.  After all, what didn't kill you...
Dad was pissed there were only two... it was the first inkling Radditz had that Vegeta might want to keep him around.  The fact he even noticed there was a gap in the Bardock clan, and then that he didn't like it... Radditz couldn't speculate any further (and didn't dare), but that was good.  It was better than he expected.
It was still difficult to remember that Vegeta knew who Sage was, and must also know why Radditz had withdrawn.  Maybe the king was upset with him for taking the choice upon himself, but it was too dangerous to be a bond bastard of royalty - especially out of a sebba.  Women had cubs all the time, the parentage was only an issue if they made it one.  But onkru'kah, who could only conceive under specific circumstances... Radditz would have been suspected of all manner of underhanded motives, and Sage's life forfeit.
He drapes a hand over Sage's comatose form.  What should he ask... what could he ask?
"'s 'Rotto still dumb as a rock?"
No, but seriously.  "Y'r dad knows why I left... right?"  Not why he got nabbed for the slave trade, of course - as if that had been deliberate! - but why he took leave, shifted his duties off-planet, made himself impossible to find during the king's rut...
Trunks can't help his snort.  'dumb as a rock' just about described Kakkarot in a nutshell.  "You mean he was always that way?  Oi..."  He shakes his head, still inclined to laugh a little. "He knows now," is his answer to the other question.  "That was part of the fight he and Bardock had.  My father accused your father of knowingly hiding a born out of bond bastard prince and Bardock told him...well...I don't recognize the phrase exactly.  But whatever it was made my father's tail floof like a pissed off cat's."  He tips his head back thoughtfully as he thinks about that fight.  He hadn't been there for all of it, he'd had Sage clinging to his legs behind him but now that he thought on it, he didn't think Bardock ever actually denied knowledge of Sage's parentage.  He could be wrong of course.
"Once he settled down and was more rational, which took a day or so he came to have a good look at Sage."  Trunks groaned a little.  "Sage, he didn't really talk...well...at all for about the first three months.  And if he recognized Vegeta as his father, he sure hid it well," he said wryly.  "You know how an animal acts when it's always afraid, but never afraid at the same time? That's how he was.  Certain things would trigger him into being cowed into submission, but our father wasn't one of them apparently.  Bardock wasn't either.  He treated them pretty much the same for a good while.  And it became pretty clear as Sage healed up that while he might have third class coloring, and your mane, he looks like our father.  Hell, he looks like me.  And he's got that long, matching tail to boot."
He's quiet for a moment, then he has to ask.  "There's something I'd like to ask you," he says cautiously.  "Your family, even Turles, is understandably hesitant still to volunteer information about Sage.  But Kakkarot...yeah..."  He nods and grins too at Radditz's groan.  "It would be him," he agrees.  "Anyway, he said Sage's ki was high.  Not third class high, elite high.  I could never pin him down for it again, and Turles wouldn't answer.  Was it?  Would you know actual numbers?  Something?  Anything?"  His voice is worried, not accusing.
Trunks didn't know Sage's power level?  That was... odd.  Why wouldn't he know?  Radditz hadn't yet connected the dots to realize that even though Sage was no longer restrained, he wasn't able to raise his ki.  He'd never heard of such a thing.  Of course, he had yet to raise his own , so Kami knew what sort of shape he himself was in.
Radditz thinks back.  He knew he had the numbers at one point; he'd been worried Sage's ki might tip someone off... finally he comes up with a figure, and relates it to the odd-colored prince.
It's high.
The effort of sifting back through his head for years-old numbers is arduous.  But he would have done anything Trunks asked at this point; he saved Sage, he saved Radditz, he was Vegeta's heir.  After he answers, the day seems to catch up with him, and his eyelids flicker in exhaustion.
The number is high.  Higher than he expected, and that was more than a decade ago.  Sage hadn't been quite four when he and his sebba had been captured, according to his family.  "Fuck," he says finally.  With everything that's happened to Sage, every injury, every...every THING...his power level now could well be astronomical.  "Thank you," he remembers to say.  "Why don't you rest, hmmm?  We've got a long trip ahead of us."
Radditz manages a nod.  So much has happened today, he almost can't process it all.  It would be overwhelming but for the little flame in the back of his mind, filling a spot that was aching and empty for so long.  It was like a drink of water after being so thirsty you forgot there was any other way to be.
He's out in no more than five breaths.
to be continued...
- 3
- 4
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Buying Radditz, by Talon and Manawolf