Chapter 4

 

With her minds flooded with the thoughts of the engineering department Bulma barely heard Goku when he declared in intention to go. She did not ask where he was going neither did Vegeta. Perhaps because it was made clear from the tone of Goku's voice that he was not entirely sure where he was going. Bulma had enough faith in Goku to not push. Plus she was eager to get back to the engineering department. Finishing her breakfast in record time Bulma bolted towards the engineering department. It was not till she was out of sight did Vegeta speak, 'You are going to her aren't you?' he asked softly.

'Her who?' wondered Goku.

'Don't play dumb, Kakarott.' Snapped Vegeta. Goku saw the chair the prince was sitting on slide backwards and heard his press his hands flat against the table making the cups and plates rise up in the air and settle back down. 'You know very well who I am referring to.'

'On the contrary Vegeta I do not.' Stated Goku coolly. 'If you would remember, I was the one who spent the last o I don't know twenty five years of my twenty six year old life on another planet devout of any knowledge of my Saiyain heritage.'

Vegeta sat back down. 'Vegitasei.' He whispered after a moments pause, 'You are going to the temple our ancestors built to the spirit of Vegitasei. The spirit who always appeared to us in the form of the beautiful woman, you are going to the temple of…' he turned away.

'Mother nature.' Goku completed for him. 'I suppose I am… yes that is the temple the direction to which was revealed to me in the music.' Agreed Goku.

'Music?' wondered Vegeta. Goku was about to explain but Vegeta's eyes lost their focus and he seemed to be reliving some past memory, 'I remember…' his voice… it lost all its manly depth and became like that of a child, frighten yet secure in his mother's arms. 'Mother, my mother used to sing to me when I was yet a babe. Unlike so many of our people she had carried me to birth. She was still devoted to the old ways. She still called to Vegitasei herself. She used to sing to me this melody that could soothe the raging fires of hell itself. I used to beg her to sing me the melody before I went to sleep. I could not sleep without it. After the curse was set, for a time as the light of dawn broke through the gloom and darkness and drove away the shadows I would here the melody once again. Soothing me, lulling me to sleep.' Silence. Suddenly in one violent motion Vegeta flipped the table over. Plates, glasses and silverware hit the floor raising a din of noises. The breaking of china and sound of metal echoed through the hall vibrating the walls. 'It was weak.' He bit out, cold hatred and bitter anger colouring his voice, 'My mother was weak. Only someone weak would allow herself to be killed in a stupid shuttle accident. I was weak to hum the melody after my mother's death. My father had me beaten for fouling my mouth singing the melody of a spirit who was over thrown by one of my more wiser ancestors. He was right in doing so. It was weak of me to allow my self to be soothed by the music.' He spoke like a parrot saying words he felt he had to say without fully understanding what he was saying. Far, far from believing what he was saying, 'I have since rectified the situation however.' He assured Kakarott, 'Let that bitch try to brain wash me now.' Vegeta got up from his seat and marched out of the hall.

No until the door of the hall slid shut behind the Prince did Goku move. Slowly he flipped the table back on its legs, 'Your ancestor was not wise, your father was not right and your mother was not weak.' He said into the air, 'Someday I'll tell this to your face Vegeta and that day you will know I speak the truth. Till than my Prince believe what you wish.' He left soon after for the temple of Vegitasei.


He feed his pets and sat talking to them while they ate. When they were done he went to train in one of the many training rooms of the palace. Turning loose the training drones Vegeta pushed his body to its limits in what seemed like a vain attempt at… what? He did not know. But training seemed to bring a degree of normality to his life. He wished, he wished he had someone to train against. Perhaps Kakarott would give him a match. He shook his head and reminded himself that he was the Prince of the Saiyains. He will order Kakarott to give him a match and Kakarott will have to obey. Though if the scouter readings were anything to go by that Kakarott was nowhere near his league. But still someone to fight was someone to fight. he continued with his training as long as he could. His session ended the way it always did, with him on his knees on the floor coughing up blood. When his stomach calmed he dragged his aching body to its feet and stumbled out. Had the curse never been laid he would never have been reduced to such a state after what was by Saiyain standards a easy workout. But as it was Vegeta had to resist the urge to just lay down and die, his body ached so much. Stumbling and staking he made his way to his room and collapsed on his bed. Exhausted physically and mentally. There he lay for close to two hours before finally being awoken by a soft melody. The blue haired woman, Bulma, what was she up to…


The deserted looked the same yet different. Goku was not sure how he was telling the difference between one patch of sand and the other but he was. He could see things in the sand that he thought it would be impossible to see. He was that the sands were not all the same colour. He could tell when one desert gave way to another but soon the deserted ended and large mountain surprisingly covered with the densest forest greeted him. The mountain seemed impassable by foot, even by air it was a formidable challenge since it was so high that Goku swore that if he went any higher he would be in Outer-space. But soon be was on the other side of the green mountain tipped with white caps of snow. Soon he was confronted with blood red earth pot market with patches of lushes forests of emerald green trees. Goku did not know how anything could grow in this dry, dry place but it clearly did.

'So this is where I come from.' He whispered. This was indeed the ancient homeland of the Saiyains. This was were they evolved. It was here they lived before they could pass the mountains and have access to the rest of the planet. The story goes that one moon a tribe of Saiyain Oozarus manage to stomp flat a portion of the mountain. After the moon the Saiyains where able to use the passage to cross into other half of the planet. The Tsufurun were concentrated on another continent and it was many, many millenniums after the Saiyain crossing of the mountain did they first make any notable contact beyond the Tsufurun satelights picking up Saiyain activities and Saiyain images. Needless to say neither of the race much appreciated the other and neither quiet grasped the concept of live and let live. What a waste. Sighing Goku continued on his way, he had yet far to go.


So many things to study so little time. Bulma was not sure what to do first. Study the scouter or learn about the regeneration tank. Play with the gravity modifier or take apart the hyper-drive engine prototype. At last she decided one step at a time was best when it came to learning about alien technology. So she started with the scouter. It did not take her long to pick out the main mechanisms of the device. Soon she was upgrading and modifying the scouter to display information in English. But while her mind was eager to continue her body was beginning to revolt. Her back ached and her eyes hurt. She had to take a sort walk to regenerate both. It was a good time to explore the palace some more.

Happy with her days progress she began to hum a soft tone as she made her way through the high archways and beautifully painted ceilings. It was hard to believe that this was a Saiyain palace. She did not think Saiyains did anything beyond eat and fight. But than maybe it was not Saiyains who did this maybe it was the slaves they had. On the way to Vegitasei Goku that told pretty much all he was taught about Vegitasei in his space pod. It was not nice. They had slaves and from more worlds that Earth scientists knew existed. It could have been them but than Saiyains might suffer from boredom as well. Once or twice they might get bored of fighting and than maybe than they did something creative. Who knew? Well Vegeta but like he was ever going to tell her.

So she forced herself to be content with suppositions and presumptions. Going from one room to another she thought she could pick out the different variations in paintings and sculpture that either indicated that they were from different time periods of were crafted by people from different races. Unbeknown to her she now had a shadow. Unseen Vegeta trailed her silently as she explored his palace. He was well pleased to see the wonder in her eyes. He could tell she was dazzled by the grandeur surrounding her. What puzzled him was the briefs flashes of sadness that clouded her eyes. Was she sad for his people or was she sad for the different worlds that had been looted to fill the palace? He could not tell, probably both. He knew some races were sentimental like that. But surprisingly he was sort of he did not know how to describe the feeling he was he wanted her to feel sad about his people. Feh what a stupid thing for a Saiyain to think. Why would a Saiyain need the pity of a weakling like herself? Why would a Saiyain need pity period? But still the treacherous feelings came.

Soon Bulma made her way out into what was a small enclosed courtyard. The floor of the courtyard was paved with beautiful red marble, strange emerald green trees formed a line in front of the walls of the enclosure. The walls themselves where hidden from sight by a strange green climbing plant that sprouted cherry red blossoms with long slender petals surrounding a tiny deep purple centre. At the centre of the courtyard stood a single pedestal of the same construct as the floor. On it stood a genie lamp shaped dish containing dry red earth. Gently Bulma made her way to the pedestal and dipped her finger in the soil. She gazed at her now red finger tip and wondered if this place had any special significance.

'It's a Saiyain marriage alter.' Came Vegeta's voice from behind her.

Bulma jumped and turned around but of course she was nothing, 'A marriage alter?' she wondered.

'Yes.' Replied Vegeta simply.

'Okay.' She said as she looked around once more. 'Does these trees and things have any special significance?' she asked.

'Yes it does.' Replied Vegeta. 'The red marble represents the red earth of the arid lands from wench we hail and the tree are the only native flora that grew in that harse, harse place.' Rapid footsteps, than the soil parted slightly as if a finger had been dipped in it. 'The hanging vines represent the mountain that separated our ancient homeland from the rest of the planet, this soil is true soil brought from there by homesick Saiyains when they first began to colonise the desert.'

Bulma watched as a finger shaped bit of soil hang in the air but than before her eyes it vanished. The spell, she understood, makes anything sticking to the prince invisible as well. She heard a noise that sounded like fingers being rubbed together and saw what looked like soil being dusted off. 'So did all marriages take place here?' she asked not wanting silence to reign.

'No.' replied Vegeta. 'Most marriages took place in front of a government officer at local judgement halls all over the empire. Only few took place here.'

'Why?' asked Bulma her curiosity peeked.

'Because only a few marriages were because of,' he paused and forced the next words out as if it pained him to say it, 'true love.'

'Huh.' Bulma uttered confused.

'Most Saiyains choose their mates based on how strong an offspring they could give them, or because they were lonely and needed companionship,' a snort indicating what Vegeta thought of Saiyains who choose their mates to appraise the last need, 'among the nobility political unions usually ran rampant. Which is not to say anyone was forced to do anything, usually it was the bride and bridegrooms themselves that forged such alliances. But some, some…' footsteps. 'We Saiyains are psychic. Only mildly by the standards of many races, strongly psychic by the standards of other races. Which ever way what it means is that from the moment we are born we have in place strong mental blocks. They are almost unbreakable. You would have to be an incredible strong psychic to break it down. None of my people are strong enough to do that.' Silence, 'However amount my people have always existed storytellers who could go around the barriers.' Footsteps, Bulma could feel his breath tickling her neck, 'They would start to tell a story with words. Slowly they would begin to weave the words in such a way that you would start seeing the words form the most vivid pictures in your mind. The words would continue and the pictures would become more vivid till it was as if you were there, at the battle, fighting along side the great warriors the story told of but than you would realise that the words had stopped along ago and the story teller was telling the story in your head by sharing his mind with you. But,' Bulma shivered with a mixture of delight and surprise as a soft butterfly kiss landed on her neck, 'when we fell in love. When we found True love and found our soul mate our mental blocks just shattered as far as the two of us were concerned, than we would come here and stand facing each other over the red earth alter and drop any mental guard we were clinging to out of fear.' Footsteps, soil began to be pushed around inside the dish, 'There we would be, each allowing the other to see our bare soul. Our soul minus everything else. Minus the feelings incited by our flesh appearance, minus the feelings incited by our strength, by our rank, by our status. We would be all that we were nothing more and nothing less.' He stopped pushing the soil around but Bulma could tell that Vegeta's hand was still touching the soil. 'Than if we were able to accept each other for what we were, what we truly were than we would take a bit of the soil and mark each other by painting one single line on each others forehead.' Silence, it seemed like to Bulma that Vegeta had removed his hand. 'We would be married. Just like that. We would be bonded to each other in life and in death.'

BOOM, to fast for Bulma to detect a Ki beam shivered the trunks of a near by tree to bits. 'Meaning less.' Screamed Vegeta as smashed the alter and spilt the scared red soil all over the red marble floor, 'Customs of a race in limbo. A race that's going to remain in limbo because I their Prince am too dense to know how to life this stupid curse.' He screamed as he blasted couple more trees.

'Vegeta stop it.' cried Bulma. He did. Without knowing what to do she began to gather the pieces of the broken alter dish.

'Leave it.' he said softly, 'This curse is… this curse will not allow me or anyone else for that matter to destroy anything. The alter, the tree will be the way it was before sun down.' He stopped, a dry laugh, 'I broke some plates and cups this morning, in the breakfast room. But if you go in there now you will find everything they way you found. The way it was left by the slaves twenty years ago.' Footsteps, the door slid open, more footsteps, the door slid closed.

Falling to her knees Bulma began to sod, 'Way to go Bulma.' she said to herself after a moment, 'You have known him less than a day, you can't see him and already you are shedding tears for him. At this rate your be in love with him within the week.' She teased herself. A laugh, 'I always did fall for the guys I was going to fall for really quickly didn't I.' She acknowledged to herself. Vegeta's eagle circled her once overhead, than it flew down to perch next to her on the alter lying on its side. Slowly she began to stroke the bird, 'Tell me little bird, is it a good idea to fall for your master?' the bird turned its head towards her and stared at her as if to say are you serious. After a moment it nodded its head once and went back to enjoying Bulma's soft caresses.


The temple was huge. Curved out of a mountain the size of the structure seemed to Goku to be designed to mimic the size of the planet. The gem flower encrusted entrance of the temple was fifty stories above the ground. There were no steps only sallow groves intended to be used for free hand climbing. Goku could of course just fly up to the entrance but he knew that to show his worth he had to climb up the wall. At the very least it was challenge, when did he ever shrink from a challenge?

He was just about to take off his weighted cloths when a soft voice chimed in his head, 'Keep them on.' Goku obeyed and began to climb with the weighted cloths sitting heavy literally on his shoulder.

The sun was into the last let of its days journey when Goku reached the top. Cursing under his breath he wondered if he would be able to learn anything before the shadows took over this mind Goku stepped inside found himself in a chamber richly decorated with hanging plants and vines of flowers and fruits. Rose vines and grapevines were the drapes that hid the wall from view and rich thick moss type of plant served the purpose of a carpet. There was pool of clear water in the centre of the room. Slowly Goku made his way there and kneeled down next to it. Dipping his hand into the pool he whispered, 'Good mother save me from the shadows, I beg you.'

'The Shadows, Kakarott, does not come here.' said a soft voice. Goku looked up and came face to face with the spirit of Vegitasei herself. 'You are safe in my presence.'


The green haired man gently pressed the red button bracing himself to meet the man that sat on the other side of the door. With a soft serpent like hiss the door opened. 'Zarbon.' Said the man sitting in the shadows. 'How long?' he asked softly.

'Two weeks, three if the forecasted solar flair takes place in the Ionian sun and we have to correct our course.' He informed the pirate lord.

A snort, 'He will make sure the solar flair takes place. He will do anything to keep me away from Vegitasei.' Said the man. 'Anything, that is, short of killing me. No that would be too easy, she wants me to suffer.'

'I thought you wanted to stay away from Vegitasei.' Said Zarbon. 'Isn't it why you joined formed his band of scourge of the seven solar systems, Turles?' asked Zarbon trying to work in a bit of humour into the other wise to serious atmosphere.

He began to laugh uncontrollably, it was not a present sound, 'There was a time I would have done anything to get off that… that… o words can't describe the loathing I felt for that place. I do however feel better about my homeworld thanks to my long, long absence but…' he looked out the port hole to the rapidly moving stars outside, 'I have to return. Only she can undo what the God of War, the God of the Saiyain has done to me. Only she has the power to undo his doings. I must seek her out and I must find a way to make her restore my…' he trailed off. 'Leave me.'

'Restore your what?' pressed Zarbon. 'What happened back on Rigel five? For five years I have watched you become… I mean you are still the charismatic leader, still the brilliant strategist, you became stronger after Rigel five but you lost your love of people. You shrink from the company of all. You do not mingle except to inspire your followers to do… whatever. What happened in Rigel five?' asked Zarbon again.

'I said leave me.' Screamed Turles as he turned and glared at Zarbon, 'I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to hear about it. You have served me faithfully for ten years Zarbon. That is repayment enough for me having saved your life from Freeza you can leave my company anytime you wish if you do not like what I am becoming.' He said, 'Just stop pestering me about it.' he turned back to the view port.

Silence, 'I won't leave.' Said Zarbon, 'You know how I feel.' Bowing he left the room.

Turles buried his head in his hand and thought softly, 'Help me good mother reclaim my soul.'


Goku just stood there frozen. He could not understand it. He had conversed with the earth Kami on countless occasions, why was his voice not working now? 'It is perhaps because you are not used to conversing with spirits of planets. Especially your own.' She offered, 'Gods and planet spirits are two very different things.'

'Perhaps.' Agreed Goku. 'I have questions.'

'Yes you have many questions.' Agreed Vegitasei, 'But they are all centred around the curse.' Goku nodded, 'I can not tell you how to lift the curse. You have to discover that on your own. But I can help you understand it. Understand the witch who cast it and point you in the right direction. But I cannot tell you. It would defeat the purpose of the curse.'

'This curse has a purpose other than to make creatures suffer?' wondered Goku in amazement.

'Yes it does.' Replied Vegitasei. 'Tell me who do the Saiyains worship?' she asked.

'They used to worship you.' Said Goku, 'But most tribes have their own tribal spirits and…' Vegitasei shook her head.

'No one worships spirits Kakarott. They pay us homage and we protect them in return for their homage and some of us protect them regardless of whether they pay us homage or not. It must be your human upbringing that's getting the two mixed up. Think again. Who do the Saiyains worship?' Vegitasei asked again.

Kakarott thought for awhile longer this time, 'You mean Mithral. The one god of the Saiyains who is also sometimes referred to as the god of war?' Vegitasei inclined her head slightly, 'What does he have to do with anything?' wondered Kakarott. 'The only thing he does in this life for us is aid us in battle it is only in the next life that we have to answer to him for the deed of our present life. Which is why there are no elaborate temples to him. We remember him… always during every deed we do and hope that it meets his approval.'

'Yes, that is the theory.' Agreed Vegitasei, 'Yet you could not remember his name when I asked you to. Thus lies the problem.' Goku blinked, 'The Saiyains forgot what it was preciously Mithral approved and what it was he disapproved. They did not remember him when they did the deeds for which they had to answer to him in the afterlife. Though they did call him before battle. If it could indeed be called battle.' Said Vegitasei, 'There is no honour in what the Saiyains were doing. There was not honour in pointing and shooting people barely able to defend themselves. Worse crushing them underfoot after turning into fifty foot were-monkeys. It was only time before Mithral stopped being passive and became active in trying to stop the Saiyains from self-destructing. Many signs were sent to them. Your father was granted special powers so that he may help his people.' A sigh, 'But alas! The signs were ignored and your father decided that he was not ready to carry the weight of his destiny.' She looked away, 'If this planet is destroyed I am destroyed and I had pretty much resigned myself to this fate when the Saiyain decided to attack the witch colony.' She looked him straight in the eye, 'The witches worshipped Mithral as well, only to them he was the lord of magic. They knew what was happening with the Saiyains and they knew that the Saiyain race would be destroyed if things did not change.' She looked into the pool, Goku too found himself gazing at the still clear water of the pool. Slowly images began to form and Goku found himself seeing the events of the battle with the witches, 'Don't get me wrong the witches fought hard to survive but the Saiyains proved too strong for even their magic. In the end only one was left. Pandora.' Goku say old, wrinkled face of the witch who had laid the curse on his race. Though not prone to hate, hate welled up inside of him, 'When she was yet young she had great power and great beauty. But age had robbed from her beauty and much of her power. In her youth she would have been able to stop the Saiyains with only her finger. As it was she had to watch her sisters get murdered and her home blown to bit. But age had given her wisdom in exchange for all the things it had taken from her. In her wisdom she realised destroying the Saiyains was not the answer.' Vegitasei looked Goku straight in the eye, 'She did have power enough to blow the planet and send everyone to kingdom come if she wanted. But she didn't. Instead she laid this curse. This isn't meant to harm, on the contrary its meant to help. Help the Saiyain people remember what it means to be true Saiyains, remind them that fighting is all well in good but when it comes to battles they must only engage in those battles that are honourable. Most importantly the curse is intended to save the soul of a spoilt brat Prince who would otherwise grow up to be the scourge of the Universe.' She stopped and said slowly, 'Do you remember Freeza?'

'Yes.' Said Kakarott, 'We… the Saiyains had an alliance with him. They purged planets for him.'

She inclined her head, 'Freeza would have turned on the Saiyains. He would have destroyed me had the curse not blocked cloud his mind as to my location.'

Goku started, 'What?'

'Yes, I told you this curse is not meant to harm. When the curse is lifted, Freeza will remember but by then hopefully either you or the Prince or both of you would have unlocked your true potential.' She informed him.

'Our true potential?' he wondered. A stray synopsis sparked, 'You don't mean Super Saiyain? You do but… how… why?'

'Those are question I can't.' said Vegitasei. 'But be warned you don't have much time. Turles is returning.'

'Turles?' wondering Goku, 'Who is he?'

'A Saiyain whose lust for power drove him to do something no true Saiyain would do. There is a tree, you see, called the Tree of Might.' She told him, 'One bite of the fruit from this tree and your strength was doubled. Turles was growing this tree on a planet many thousand light-years from here called Rigel Five. When he was attacked. He had with him his soul mate, a woman who had accepted him despite his power lust. During the battle one of those turning points of life took place. His wife and his tree were both being attacked at the same time. He could only save one. Turles did what no true Saiyain would have done. He turned his back on his mate and saved the tree and relished in the power the fruit granted him.' She closed her eyes and a single tear rolled down her eyes, 'His lust for power had corrupted him. Mithral himself striped him of his Saiyain soul and Turles, Turles was left to rue his choice and slowly perish from the inside.' she looked him back in the eye, 'Without his soul he was pretty much off my radar. However he is approaching Vegitasei even as we speak and so I can sense him once more. He bad news Kakarott. Be wary of him.' Than she began to fade, 'I have told you all that I can. The rest is up to you and the Prince. Stay here for the night if you wish. Remember my words and you will be able to free your people from this curse.'

'Wait.' Cried Goku, 'You said you would point me to the right direction on how to lift the spell.'

'I have.' Said she as she disappeared, 'One last thing. Turles his your half brother.' Goku's eyes widened, 'And Vegeta's.' Goku swore his jaw was hanging all the way down to the floor.

* * * * *

Author's note: Did you like it? Tell me won't you. Just e-mail s354033@student.uq.edu.au and as for Turles he does look like Goku and he was the leader of a bad of Space pirates and in the Funamation version of the movie he was in he was said to be Goku's twin. That is incorrect as Goku had no twin in the Bardock special. So that's just bad translation or Funamation's explanation as to why they look alike. It has also been said that he was a third class warrior like Goku was suppose to be and all third class warriors look alike. That too is not correct as the rest of Bardock's squad were also third class warriors and of course they don't look identical and many of the Saiyain we see in the Bardock special were also third class and they too were significantly different. So clearly Turles is related to Goku, its just not clear how.


Table of Contents
Chapter 3
Chapter 5