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...

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