Dragon Ball Z 1. Prologue

Prelude: centuries ago, a conflict raged far from the known universe between two groups of telepaths. One good and one evil, but both using the same techniques to try and beat the other. Eventually the Supreme Kai, one of the few beings alive that could resist the mind tricks of the telepaths, intervened and all seemed to go well for a while. That was until the evil ones re-emerged once more, seeding distrust and contempt throughout the galaxy in preparation of the arrival of the greatest weapon ever. The year is 384 BC and both sides are preparing themselves for the inevitable.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball  
  
Author's note: for my convenience I am changing the date that the Saiyans first set foot on Planet Plant. If you're wondering why, read the story and while your busy doing that, may I remind you that it is only a small effort to leave a review. Thank you for your time and I hope that you enjoy the fic. Also keep in mind that this is written according to the Dragonball timeline, so 384 BC is not around our Classic era.  
  
***D, Y and P*** = Date, year and place  
Normal = The story itself along with my other written things I put in it  
"..." = Spoken dialogue between characters or with themselves  
*...* = Thoughts  
[...] = Mental dialogue  
***...*** = Dream  
*** = Separation between paragraphs  
"[...]" = Translated dialogue  
*[...]* = Translated thoughts  
  
THE STORY OF TURGAZ  
  
PROLOGUE  
  
***July 3, 384 BC, Planet Plant***  
  
"The day of reckoning is upon us."  
  
A video wall in the abandoned living room five stories up of a Tsufuru family showed the face an elderly man saying these words. A flash of light from outside the house followed the man's last word as if on cue. Seconds later, the flash of light was followed by a wave of pressure generated by an explosion, that shook the entire house. The windows in the house shattered into a thousand pieces as cracks in the walls appeared, all due to the pressure wave. Screams were heard outside followed by more flashes of light, this time without the pressure waves. The screams were silenced. Moments later, a shadow was cast into the living room through the window as a large figure with gravity defying hair hovered before it. He smirked as he raised his right arm and fired a yellow ki beam. An explosion and the living room was turned into a replica of hell. The light that was emitted from the fire lighted the figure up. He wore little more then rags and had a furry tail wrapped around his waist, he was a Saiyan.   
  
In the meantime, flames grew in size as the fire consumed the furniture that situated in the living room and the ceiling was no longer visible, by a dense layer of smoke. The man on the video wall began to speak again.  
  
"Fallen angels of Death and Destruction have been released upon us, just as was foretold by the great Ziener almost five thousand years ago. Yet, not all is lost. WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES!"  
  
The video wall caught the Saiyan's attention as he took a second to figure out what the man on the screen was mumbling about. He didn't figure it out in that second, so he raised his right arm again and fired a yellow ki beam into the video wall as well. It exploded as the figure smirked again.   
  
The heat in the living room rose and flames began to lick the layer of smoke. This would at the very least alarm most firemen, as the situation became much more dangerous. The Saiyan however didn't notice it or didn't care as he raised his right arm to fire another ki beam into the building. The smoke caught fire and the living room was filled with a giant fireball that wanted to go outside. The eyes of the Saiyan grew wide as he saw the fireball moving toward him. Quickly, while letting the ki that had gathered in his hand flow back in his body, he crossed his arms in defensive posture and let out a loud roar. He formed a cone of invisible ki in front of him and let the fireball pass. After this, while letting his defense drop, the Saiyan lowered himself to the ground, where he was awaited by two of his fellow Saiyans. One of them, a muscular female with long unruly black hair and only a head smaller then the first Saiyan, began to speak, while the other, an extremely large Saiyan with only minimal hair on his head, watched with a smug smile on his face.  
  
"[Are you ready with playing Draawz? If so, we could go to the edge of the village were more formidable resistance is sighted.]"  
  
Draawz glared at his woman for the suggestion that his activity had been a waste of time, but then replied.  
  
"[Let's go then, but Anatak count on it that I pay you back for that remark.]"  
  
Draawz noticed a smile form on the face of his woman as he gave his reply, she knew what was coming, Anatak always knew. He shook on his head and took to the air with the other two Saiyans following behind and headed at top speed towards the edge of the village, where almost fifty other Saiyans were already waiting for him, as he was their leader. Once there, Draawz and the other Saiyans became aware of a monotone drone that began to become louder and louder. Soon after, small dots became visible, just barely above the horizon.  
  
"[Flying machines!]"  
  
Draawz agreed with the voice, the dots had to be the flying machines of the small creatures, which looked like young Saiyans. He smirked; this was going to be fun.  
  
***  
  
A young Tsufuru, who wore a blue jumpsuit and a DG (Data Gathering) helmet of a Tsufuru soldier, was securely strapped against the wall of a cargo plane. In his hands he carried his weapon, which looked like an ancient shotgun, but was in fact the latest version the Tsufuru blaster rifle. Nervous sweat was pushed out of his pores and ran down his face. The monotone drone of the airplane's engines filled his ears. He gulped, why did hostile aliens just have to land on this day. The internal speakers came alive  
  
"Ten...nine...eight..." The Tsufuru knew what was next, after all he had practiced it over and over again. "...Seven...six...five..." Yet, this wasn't practice, this was for real. "...Four...three...two..." He performed a short prayer and gulped afterwards. This was it. "...One and detach." A short 'click' sounded through out the cargo hold and was the first and for now only sign that the cargo hold was detached from the airplane itself. Soon after, the Tsufuru felt his stomach go queasy, due to the acceleration towards the ground. Normally he would have loved this part, but now he felt only fear. He was heading down to a battlefield. In his mind he remembered his father's words for him, before he had left home today.  
  
*For your sake, Jacen, I hope that you made the right choice when you joined the army. There will be no place for cowards in the army, after this day.* His father's words sounded in his mind, while he felt the retrorockets kick in.   
  
The cargo hold slowed it's decent and touched down on the ground. Jacen freed himself out of the bindings and removed the safety catch of his weapon. Fear was shoved to the back of his mind as adrenaline took over. He was ready as the doors slowly opened.  
  
"Go, go, go!"  
  
After the order of their commander, the Tsufuru began to sprint out of the cargo hold and formed, once they were outside, a defensive perimeter. It was a standard, yet unnecessary precaution as the whole area was dominated by Tsufuru armed forces. All around them, cargo holds were touching down and troops were embarking. Overhead, atmospheric fighters of the air force flew at top speed towards the enemy lines, while behind them, large cargo planes were landing and unloading their payload of artillery and tanks. The troops waited for several more long minutes, until the last troops had arrived and the long barrels of the artillery rose into the air to open fire. A loud thundering sounded as the artillery opened fire. This was the sign for the infantry and tanks to move forward, towards the awaiting aliens, knowing that the fighters and artillery would have inflicted the enemy heavy casualties by the time that they would arrive at the actual battlefield. Little did they know that as they thought this, the fighters were fighting a losing battle of life and death in an air-to-air duel with the aliens and the artillery had little effect at all.   
  
***  
  
Draawz smirked as he came out of tight corner and shot straight towards one of the metallic flying machines of the enemy, as if to see if the pilot of the machine was up to a game of chicken. The enemy opened fire at him with the machine's energy cannons, but he ignored them as they only inflicted minor burns. Finally, after Draawz almost became respective of the pilot, the flying machine began to turn in order to move out of the way for Draawz. Draawz sighed and zanzokened out of sight, only to reappear behind the machine. He raised his right arm and shot a yellow ki beam into the back of the machine, causing it to explode.  
  
*[The flying machines are fun, but they never form a real challenge.]*  
  
He looked around in search of a better challenge and was disappointed, after he saw some Saiyans finish of the enemy with little effort, to find that the enemy wasn't as strong as he had hoped. A distant thundering sounded and Draawz looked up, just in time to see a shell coming his way. He had no time to prepare a defense and was hit by the shell in the stomach, where it exploded. The force of the impact and more importantly the explosion sent Draawz flying down into the ground.   
  
The sound of laughter broke through the barrier that was formed by the ringing of his ears, as Draawz pulled himself out of the ground. He groaned and shook his head clear, perhaps this enemy was worthy after all. On instinct, Draawz clutched the spot were the shell had slammed into him and exploded. There was no moisture, but it was a bit sour and a good deal of his rags had been torn away on that spot. He grimaced and pulled himself together in order to stand up, it would certainly hurt for awhile but it wasn't anything serious. He looked up and saw that every single Saiyan, who had dared laugh, stopped immediately, fearful for their leader's retribution. All except for one, who dropped to the ground and stood across Draawz some twenty meters away.  
  
"[Which kind of a leader are you, even a leze knows how to dodge that?]"  
  
Draawz glared at the Saiyan that had insulted him. It was clear to him that the Saiyan wanted to challenge him, but he knew that now was not the time. He checked the sky for the enemy and saw none of the flying machines. Instead, he only saw that all Saiyan eyes were focused on him. He sighed, he knew that there was no way out of this without a fight, not for him, so he began to check his challenger, while dropping into a fighting stance that made sure that his weak spot was covered from any attack. The fighting stance triggered a roar of encouragement and applause, but he ignored as he had more important things to do then listen to the others. Draawz's challenger had long black gravity defying hair that stood straight up, a clear sign that he dealt here with an elite fighter, yet his stance was completely wrong. He still had his arms crossed and smiled, confidant of victory. He knew only one, who looked and acted this way, Neorg. Little alarm bells began to sound in the head of Draawz, but he still uttered his reply to the challenge.  
  
"[You and me, now!]"  
  
Another distant thunder sounded and almost all the Saiyans looked up to see if any shells were coming their way. Almost all, two Saiyans remained focused on each other, Draawz and his challenger. Explosive shells exploded around them, none of them hit their intended targets. Dust and smoke carried past them, wind blew through their hair. A few moments later, the wind died down, dust resettled on the ground and the smoke was dispersed. The silence that followed was ear deafening. Tension rose until neither of the two Saiyans could hold themselves back. They shot towards each other and met in a shock wave generating impact. There was no way back, not anymore. Both combatants disappeared from sight.  
  
***  
  
Jacen, alongside his group of fellow soldiers, reached the top of a hill and could for the first time see the actual battlefield, or rather the battle in the air above it. He stopped and stared in a mixture of awe and dread at the scene in front of him. From this distance, fighters harassing the enemy with their energy cannons should have been visible, but there weren't any. Instead small dots, almost fifty in total, filled the sky, joined by an occasional shock wave and energy beam which seemed to have no reason being there.   
  
"Private Jacen Reep get your sorry little ass back in line and move!"  
  
That was his superior speaking, so he hurried his sorry little ass to get back in line, while in the mean time stammering something that was supposed to come out as "Yes sir!"   
  
Once Jacen was back in line, he continued to look at the scene in front of him and his mind began to wander. *What could have happened to the fighters?* That one was supposed to be easy, as it was painfully obvious that the aliens had somehow managed to destroy the fighters. *But how?* He had seen the aliens on images shown during the briefing that had preceded his deployment. They seemed primitive, maybe even to the point that they were still controlled by animal instincts. *Yet they came in space pods. If they were primitive how did manage to make space pods and how did they manage to take the fighters out of the air.* He remembered other images from the briefing. Images of the first attacks the aliens had made. The flashes of energy that they shot mainly out of their hands, but also out of their mouth and eyes. *Could it be that the aliens carried implants, which enabled them to hit even the fastest among targets with devastating force?* The artillery opened fire for the third time.  
  
Jacen looked up from his pondering and saw some of the dots move out of the way for something. Less then a second later, explosions on the ground below the dots, artillery rounds that only succeeded in making more craters. He stopped once more and looked up in the sky, as if answers to his questions were written there. *Could it be that these creatures, things...* He wasn't too sure of the answer anymore. *...Had mastered the art of flying. No, no Tsufuru-like being could ever learn to fly on itself. It defied every law nature had created. Unless the aliens had, next to implants for shooting energy, also implants for...* An order interrupted his thoughts.  
  
"For the last time, Private Jacen Reep get your sorry little ass back in..."  
  
"...Line and move! Yeah, I know." Jacen finished, while he returned his gaze on the position of the enemy.   
  
A big ball of yellow wrongness slowly grew in size just above the middle of his field of vision, where nothing should have been. Realization hit him, just before the order of his superior reached his ears.   
  
"Everyone seek cover, NOW!"   
  
A second later the yellow 'ball', which was actually a ki beam, detonated in the lines of the Tsufurus.  
  
***  
  
*[Okay, that last ki beam was a mistake.]* Draawz thought as he plummeted face down towards the ground below.   
  
He had thought that he would haven been able to surprise Neorg with a ki beam, when he had zanzokened in front of him, but that attempt had been easily thwarted as Neorg had slapped the beam aside and then had grabbed Draawz by his leg and threw him down towards the ground. Normally this wouldn't be much to worry about, but his ki beam had been slapped aside with ease.   
  
*[Why am I so weak?]*  
  
A fist, which was implanted in his stomach, answered his unspoken question. Of course, how could he have forgotten, he thought as his eyes grew wide from shock and pain. He gawked, the exploding shell had apparently done more damage then he had anticipated and now he paid the price, he thought as he doubled over. He paid the price for not being observant enough, not vigilant enough. An elbow in his back and Draawz continued his plummet towards the ground. He hit the ground and rolled on his back. Neorg was already diving down in what looked like a flying kick that would follow the mother of all jumps.  
  
*[No, I shall not lose.]*   
  
No, he would not lose, he could not lose. He was Draawz, the longest reigning male, his group had ever had. He closed his eyes for a moment. Images of his own rise to power appeared before his eyes. His absolute confidence in his victory had been apparent during the entire fight against his predecessor. Just as it now was apparent in Neorg. Yet the similarities didn't end there, most of the fight had gone almost exactly in the same fashion. In both fights, the challenger had dominated and had easily countered almost any attack the leader of the group could throw at him. In both fights, the leader became more desperate with every second that passed by. In both fights the challenger had become overconfident. Draawz eyes shot open again, Neorg was now a lot closer, but he still had all the time that he would need. He convulsed as if he needed to vomit. A yellow light became visible, illuminating the cavity of his mouth. Neorg finally noticed it when Draawz's ki beam was already leaving his mouth, but by then, it was too late to do anything about it. Neorg was swept away by the ki beam towards the upper atmosphere, which gave Draawz precious time to stand up and recover. An eerie silence settled in. All watched as Neorg headed up.  
  
"[Neorg!]"  
  
A heart-wrenching scream broke the silence when a flash of light illuminated the sky. Draawz snapped around in the general direction of the scream and saw that a female Saiyan with unusual blue hair of medium length fly towards the explosion, that had caused the flash of light, kilometers above the surface of the planet.   
  
*[Pathetic thing.]*   
  
But even as his mental curse was still busy transforming into an order, Draawz caught sight of a red ki beam catching up with the blue haired female, who was probably the woman or else a close relative of Neorg. Draawz tracked the beam to its source, even though he had no doubt about whom fired it, the fact that it was red told enough. He was proven right when he found the awaiting pair of eyes of Anatak at the source of the ki beam, watching him. A simple nod, a silent order, given by him and the ki beam exploded. Draawz looked up towards the spot in the sky were his own ki beam had exploded and smirked. He didn't need to check if the blue haired female was still alive, because he knew that Anatak was strong enough to kill any other female in the group. Besides it was the notion of the attack on the female that would drive Neorg over the edge of madness and madness would make him more reckless. Having killed her would only shorten the time that he needed to drive Neorg over the edge. Someone landed beside him.  
  
"[Was this wise?]"  
  
Draawz turned to face Anatak, who was the person that had landed beside him and asked him the question.  
  
"[Why not?]"  
  
Why would it not be wise? He honestly didn't know and he certainly didn't know why Anatak suddenly had doubts about it. It was after all she who shot the ki beam in the first place. Sure, it was him that had finally ordered to let it explode, but still he honestly didn't know why Anatak had suddenly doubts about it. Besides, it was his right as leader, to kill or order to kill those who weren't loyal to him.  
  
"[Think about it, what would you do if I lay there?]" Anatak said while pointing behind Draawz.  
  
Draawz turned around and saw the charred remains of the female lying on the ground. What would he do if that were Anatak? Grief? Turn mad? Beat whoever did it to a bloody pulp, let him recover, then beat him again to a bloody pulp and finally kill him? Obtain the power of the Super Saiyan? The first three, those were certain. The last, he had no idea. Srekam ed had told them that it was possible to achieve, when one had a sufficient amount of power and emotional pain, but what was sufficient power and what was sufficient emotional pain? He became aware of the fact that Anatak was talking again.  
  
"[...We Saiyans, not only gain power through physical pain, but also through mental pain.]"  
  
Draawz nodded, he had only gotten half of the message, but it was still crystal clear. Anatak thought that Neorg would gain an enormous amount of power, due to their action. Well, he thought, if that was the case then so be it, because he wasn't about to quit the plan that could very well be his only chance of survival.  
  
*[But Anatak is always right.]*  
  
He turned around to face Anatak again, ignoring his own thought, that she was right and he should probably not do this.  
  
"[I know that Anatak, but I can't just quit with the plan. If I do that now, this will be the end of the line for us by default.]"  
  
"[Alright then, but don't you dare die on me. You still owe me something.]"  
  
She forcefully kissed him goodbye and rose into the air.  
  
"[Good luck.]"  
  
Draawz smirked and gave her a quick nod. He didn't plan on dying here just yet, but he knew that there certainly was chance that he was going to get killed. He looked away from Anatak, back to the spot in the sky were his ki beam had exploded. A small dot slowly grew in size, while it gained more and more characteristics of a Saiyan, who was bruised and burned. Draawz carefully monitored him while he descended towards the ground. He couldn't detect any weird anomalies that could play up when he broke the news, but that didn't say much on it's own. Neorg still could have some nasty surprises up his sleeve. No, he shouldn't think like this, as it was one thing to be weary for some risks that are always present during a fight, but a totally different thing to overestimate an opponent. Neorg landed on the ground and spoke.  
  
"[Hi, missed me?]"  
  
Draawz was slightly taken aback, by the friendliness in the voice of Neorg. He had expected some angry threat not a question about if he had missed him. He shook his head and smirked, so Neorg wasn't angry yet, no big deal. He would be mad when he was finished with him.  
  
"[Sorry, but I didn't miss you Neorg.]"  
  
Neorg looked at him strangely, clearly he hadn't expected a friendly answer back. Draawz decided that now was as good a time as any to go through with his idea.  
  
"[As you can see next to you, we had some entertainment while you were gone.]" He said while indicating the charred remains of the female some distance to the left of Neorg.  
  
Neorg turned to look as Draawz waited until Neorg had made the connection between his words and the remains of the female. Dread slowly became visible on Neorg's face as he turned away from the remains and checked the sky. His eyes darted back and forward between the various Saiyans that hung in the air, he missed one. Draawz hesitated for a moment before he spoke the next words, as images of him being beaten around like he was only a ragdoll crossed his eyes.  
  
"[You miss someone among them, is it not? Someone who is close to you, is it not Neorg?]"  
  
Neorg looked at him in a mixed expression of shock and horror. Draawz let a smirk form on his face, it was working. Neorg looked at the remains of the female again as his expression changed in one of grieves.  
  
"[No.]"   
  
He ran towards her and fell on his knees next to her, as Draawz watched what was going to happen next. Neorg picked up a lock of blue hair that was by some miracle not destroyed and held it close. He looked up and sought the answer as to why she had to die in Draawz's eyes. Finding nothing, he closed his eyes.  
  
"[Why?]"  
  
He shook his head forcefully in denial; he couldn't believe it just yet. Finally finding an outlet for his anger, Neorg rammed a fist into the ground and blasted in the ground around it a crater as a small blue aura of anger formed around him.  
  
"[NO!]"  
  
He continued to hit the ground with his fists, but the strikes lacked power and had no effect what so ever. The lack of power within Neorg was further evident as the blue aura died down.  
  
"[How...?]"  
  
Neorg's voice was no longer one of a confident challenger. In fact, if his voice was any indication Neorg was far weaker then he had ever been and it made Draawz nervous. It made him wonder if there were more things he had miscalculated. He shrugged it off and decided to make the most of it as he took aim at Neorg. Neorg however had pieced himself together and now reacted as Draawz had originally anticipated. Draawz discharged the attack he was preparing as he saw how Neorg rose up and looked him straight into his eyes.  
  
"[Tell me, How did she die?]"  
  
Neorg's face was set full with murder when he asked what precisely had happened to the female, but still seemed to be able to control himself. Nevertheless his left eye seemed to have developed a twitch and his whole body began to shake more and more with every second. It was only a matter of time, Draawz knew, before Neorg would finally snap. Given that he would now press on.  
  
"[As a weakling. She cried for your help, but no one came to help her.]"  
  
***  
  
Wave after wave of red anger washed over him as Neorg struggled to remain calm. He knew that Draawz's words were meant to make him lose control, but that was the only knowledge he had left to fight against the red waves. Finally after what seemed hours for Neorg, he succeeded in shaking his head clear, so that he could think normal again. He turned his head to look at the remains of his woman. Eyes were closed as he tried to envision her death like Draawz had told him. He tried to envision her as a helpless coward, but he found that he couldn't. Sperina was no coward and that could only mean one thing, Draawz had to be lying. He opened his eyes and looked up to see if the other Saiyans could give him the true answer.  
  
"[The others will confirm what I have told you, but perhaps you're not convinced and you just have to ask them that for yourself.]"  
  
The waves of red anger again began to wash over him as he heard Draawz's challenge to ask the other Saiyans what had really happened. In a small corner of his mind, were he could think clearly, he knew that he couldn't ask it. Draawz had the others behind him, so they would only confirm what Draawz had said. Yet this small corner had little to bring in against the rest of his mind that was already taken by the red waves and so he asked anyway, while the corner prepared it's last defenses.  
  
"[Is it true what Draawz said? Did Sperina cry for my help as she died as a weakling?]"  
  
"[Yes!]" Came the unanimous reply.  
  
So it was true, he thought, at least according to the part of his brain that was already taken by the red waves. No, it wasn't true; this was the small corner speaking that still enabled him to think clearly. What followed was an internal tug of war, between the two parts of Neorg's brain. A tug of war between the raging water and a tiny island struggling for survival and like every single similar struggle before this one, the water eventually won. It wasn't like the tiny island hadn't tried, on the contrary it fought brilliantly, but when fighting a raging water mass nothing could ever truly stop it. And so Neorg was swept away by the red waves, surrendering himself to his rage. Totally oblivious of what followed next, all he would ever know is that Draawz didn't stand much of a chance.  
  
***  
  
Neorg's attack had come with such speed that Draawz didn't know what had hit him, until he had felt the tenth punch and even after that he had a hard time comprehending what in the name of Srekam ed was going on. Blue flames of ki filled his field of vision; it was simply everywhere as it was Neorg's aura of rage. Old lessons about the Super Saiyan filled his head, but he quickly dismissed them. The legend spoke of a golden warrior, not a blue warrior. Nevertheless, that particular piece of information didn't help the situation much. Neorg still gave Draawz the beating of his live, Super Saiyan or not. A ki blast or a fist, Draawz's senses were too overloaded to tell the difference, that send him flying into the air, gave him some moments to think about, how he had gotten in this situation. It seemed so perfect at the time, too perfect he realized now. He had just launched Neorg into the air, when the opportunity had presented itself to permantely tip the balance in his favor. He had been confident that he could take on a maddened Neorg, as Neorg would then become too sloppy to fight reasonably. Yet, when Anatak had spoken, confidence slowly turned into doubt and even though he still fooled himself that this was the best course of action, he had failed to see the truth and to handle accordingly. He should have never had Anatak kill the woman of Neorg. It was too late now. Vaguely he saw in the corner of his left eye Neorg charging a ki beam. On pure instinct, he raised his arms to charge a ki beam of his own, but by the time he had done that, it was already too late. Fueled by his rage and due to the fact that he was stronger then Draawz in his current state to begin with, Neorg charged his ki beam much quicker and fired it before Draawz even had a chance to properly reply Neorg's ki beam. Draawz was hit dead on and was drilled into the ground by the blue beam of anger and while he struggled to remain conscious he wondered why the damn thing just couldn't explode and end his suffering. It finally did that 200 meters underground, where Draawz could've sworn that it was a lot warmer then on the surface, had it not been that Neorg's ki beam had burned his skin to a crisp and thus disabled his ability to properly sense the temperature of his environment. With his last strength he could look up towards the outside world, were he saw that a blue light was coming his way, before everything became black.  
  
*[The pain, but at the same time total numbness.]*  
  
He wondered, if this is how death felt.  
  
***  
  
For the past few minutes, Anatak could only watch in horror as Neorg seemed to have taken on the job of excavating Draawz personally, with thousands of tiny blue ki balls swung down in the general direction of the hole in which Draawz had been drilled. She wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't. She was simply too terrified to do anything else then hangs in the air, watching in horror at Neorg's show of power and mostly madness like everyone else. She began to wonder. She began to wonder what would have happened if she hadn't shot that ki beam, what would have happened if she hadn't spoken so doubtful about the plan that Draawz had conjured up. She found that she could only blame herself. She looked down and saw that the ground appeared to become closer. For some reason, she was slowly dropping down towards the ground. She found that it was her own guilt that dropped her towards the ground. By Srekam ed, she wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't. She thought of the children Draawz and she had. The children, who were safely in a crèche away from the madness of battle, like every other Saiyan child of the group. The children, who would have to live on without a father and probably a mother too, if the others would tell Neorg the full story after the confirmation of Draawz's death. She wanted to do something, but found that she couldn't and therefor she looked up, towards the other Saiyans. She touched the ground and her strain of thoughts and emotions ended abruptly. Something had changed.  
  
Three Saiyan males had gotten out of their almost zombie-like state and all charged a ki beam of their own. Anatak knew them; they were the males that had made it possible for Draawz to make his leap for control. They were the males that had helped Draawz run the group whenever things became unstable. They were the males that had always been Draawz's most trusted friends. Well actually two were, Anatak noticed that the third was the eldest son of one of them. She smirked like Draawz had done so many times and jumped to join them, but then realized the true reason why she couldn't help Draawz before. To help someone in a fight, especially an important fight like this one, was to ensure that the rest of the group never again respected that person. She halted in mid air and shouted.  
  
"[Stop!]"  
  
The shout came as such a surprise that the three males actually listened and stopped charging their ki beams. They looked down as Anatak came up to their own level. Two of them, the elder ones, already began to realize why she had called them to a halt. Third and youngest however didn't.  
  
"[Why?]" He asked as Anatak reached their level and the three males looked up.  
  
"[Simple, you can't and you may not help someone in a fight and that goes certainly for a fight of this importance. If we would've done what we were planning, it would not only be the end for Draawz, but also for us.]"  
  
The answer given by Anatak was clear and simple; she explained what she realized only just before. The two elder males looked somewhat ashamed by the fact that they didn't realize this themselves, but the youngest was not about to admit his defeat just yet.  
  
"[But we must help Draawz. We'll die anyway if he dies."  
  
The argument was weak and everyone knew this, but Anatak still took the time to explain it to the young male.  
  
"[Look, there are two possibilities here. Draawz is dead already or not. If he is dead then we're in big trouble anyhow, if not then I believe that he still has a large chance to win this.]"  
  
She pointed at Neorg while she said it. It was costing Neorg enormous amounts of ki to do what he did and if Draawz was still alive and conscious he should still have a chance to beat Neorg, if not everything was lost as it was. The young male finally admitted it to as he looked towards Neorg, who had adjusted his strategy. Instead of shooting countless small ki balls, he now shot large ki beams at a far slower rate.  
  
"[Good, Neorg is becoming tired.]"  
  
All four Saiyans were in agreement. Neorg did indeed appear to become tired. Nevertheless, the result of his attack was indeed impressive. A massive crater of over 150 meters deep and still deepening with every blast, now was on the spot were Draawz had been drilled in the ground. How anything could have survived that, no one knew and thus Anatak's hope left her entirely.  
  
***  
  
I am not dead, that was the conclusion Draawz had drawn after several more minutes in the dark environment he was currently in. Sure, he was severely beaten and bruised, burned to a crisp and he was pretty sure that at least more bones were broken in his body then he had fingers, but he still lived. Well lived, any member of any other species, other then a few species with regeneration capabilities rivaling those of a little known race called Namekians, would have died along time ago, but he still breathed, even if it did hurt with every breath he took. Of course the pain was another give away that he was still alive, next to the fact that he heard his heart beating almost as loud as the what he assumed was once a barrage of ki blasts, which had slowed down considerable in the last minute and had become a awful lot louder. And there was this thing that he could still think all this, which was a feat on it's own given the beating that he had received minutes earlier. Yes, he was definitely alive, but for how long. He was pretty sure that whoever was busy above him, heck everything was above him but that was not the point, was Neorg and that meant that he probably wouldn't have another minute to live, once he was out here. Out here, Draawz wondered how the 'out here' was going to be like. If he was going to see a ray of light entering the dark 'chamber' in which he lay, if there was a large explosion consuming his live and the environment or if Neorg was simply going to stick his head in the chamber and say hi.  
  
Less then a minute later he got his answer, it was none of the three options that he had given himself. There was a large explosion, but it never reached far enough to destroy the entire chamber. Instead it only destroyed a little over half the chamber, leaving Draawz lying in what looked like a dinner plate for a giant. A dinner plate filled with dust and smoke that is and a Saiyan who was about medium done. These and other strange thoughts came up in Draawz as he waited for the smoke to disappear and the dust to settle. Luckily for his sanity he didn't have to wait long, then again, what he saw next wasn't exactly good for him either. He was in the middle of a giant crater, which was littered on the bottom with craters. He had never ever seen anything like this in his life and he wondered if anyone had ever seen anything truly like this. He was a child again, staring in amazement at the whole environment around him, while he remained lying in his own 'dinner plate'. An explosion shook him out of it as he realized the danger of the predicament he was in. He slowly and mostly painfully stood up and looked up, all those 200 meter plus an additional hundred meter or so up, were Neorg charged another blue ki beam. His eyes widened as he saw the ki beam coming straight at him and he crossed his arms before him, for whatever his defense was still worth. The ki beam however never did hit him as it vanished without a trace from sight. Draawz let out the air in longs, from which he hadn't even realized that he was holding it. His relieve didn't last long as he saw a small dot coming down, Neorg had decided that he would finish him off without some distant ki beam. Images of being tortured filled his mind.  
  
***  
  
Yet Draawz's images of torture were only present in his own mind, Neorg himself didn't have any thoughts currently that were even remotely similar to those of Draawz. No, Neorg wasn't currently thinking about death, pain and torture of his opponent, he was thinking about how to get down without falling to an embarrassing death. His storm of ki that he had used to reach Draawz had left him drained to the point that he had no longer enough ki left to even keep himself aloft in the air and so he was falling slowly down towards the ground. He went passed the edge of the crater that he had created and knew that he should have landed there. The crater was after all another 200 meters deeper. He went past a group of midgets carrying small arms on their back, but they didn't even register in his mind as he was still trying to figure out how he was going to survive the fall. He was halfway down the crater when he noticed that he wasn't accelerating in the way, as was normally the case in a fall. He was more less coming down in a constant speed. So he still had some ki left, his hope raised. He was about 50 meters above the bottom of the crater when he became aware of a stinging sensation, not from below, but from above. He closed his eyes and fell past the midgets again, he cursed himself. The stinging sensation stopped and moments later the fall was disabled from continuing by the ground. The world had gained a lot more similarity with a bagpipe, when he opened his eyes again and he would have noticed that too, if he knew what a bagpipe was.  
  
*[So no shameful death for me.]*  
  
So he hadn't yet died, but that was about the only positive point to the situation. He saw three Saiyans stand in front of him. All looked alike, all looked like a badly injured Draawz.  
  
"[What happened to you guys?]"  
  
The stinging sensation returned.  
  
***  
  
Draawz now began to seriously question his own sanity. Had he just heard Neorg ask, what had happened to him in multitude? He blinked and when he looked again, the golden rays that had made contact with Neorg earlier in his fall where back. One shot towards him and did manage to hit him on a spot of his left arm where he wasn't burned yet; it felt like one of those energy beams that the flying machines of the enemy shot. He looked at his arm and then back at Neorg, who was slowly consumed by the rays.  
  
*[Why doesn't he do something?]*  
  
Why didn't Neorg do something, Draawz wondered. He then remembered the drop of Neorg into the crater that had been far to fast, Neorg's inability to do anything about the first rays and the impact with the crater floor. Could it be that his plan had actually worked, that Neorg didn't have any usable ki left. Could it have been that he could have won. Probably yes, he still had, despite his state, enough ki left to fight. Anger began to grow inside of him as he looked up to see if other Saiyans were watching. He could have won, he thought. There were Saiyans watching, some of which were already leaving. This fueled his anger, but he couldn't be angry with them. All they saw was that Neorg had beaten him around and now was being killed by someone other then him. For all the information they had gotten, everything pointed to the fact that Neorg was the better fighter and he, their leader before this fight needed help to beat Neorg. Yet he didn't need help, he knew, he didn't need help to beat Neorg and that left him angry with those who had dared to interfere. The rays stopped and Draawz looked down. There was no way that Neorg would have survived the attack that he had just endured, judging by the injuries he had sustained. Draawz shook his head, some part in his brain was saddened by this all, but that was not it. It was perfectly normal to be sad when you lost almost everything, while you could have kept everything. No, the anger that had been building for some time now, turned into something much more deadly, cold hatred. The golden rays that had been so lethal for Neorg now made contact with him, but it didn't bother him, as he was no longer there. The rays stopped as Draawz's after image slowly disappeared. The enemy didn't get much time to think about what happened however; Draawz reappeared above them and fired a ki beam. They never knew what exactly hit them as some where flung away by the force of the explosion, others were instantly killed by the blast and those who had survived, well they just didn't get the time to think about what just happened. A second ki beam made sure that they were finished of. Yet the golden rays returned, this time from the edge of the crater where armored vehicles stood, with alongside them more of the small creatures. Draawz powered up a third ki beam and fired it. The beam went wide, but another, a red one, did hit the enemy formation and exploded. Two more beams did hit the enemy formation, but Draawz no longer picked it up. His injuries finally got the better of him and he slipped into unconsciousness, but not before he saw a female diving towards him.  
  
***  
  
Jacen was strapped against the wall of a cargo plane; he was heading back to his base. They had won the battle and the enemy had fled, but it didn't feel like a victory according to Jacen. He had always thought that victory was a blissful state of happiness, one that you could share with friends during a large party of some kind, but this one didn't feel like that all. It wasn't a blissful state of happiness, because he had to many questions about what had happened. Yet the questions wasn't the main reason that he wasn't in a blissful state, as he looked around to see the rest of the occupants of the plane. Twice he had experienced the awesome power of the enemy's energy beams. Twice he had survived the attack by some fluke of fortune, but during those two attacks, he had lost most of the friends he had. Some victory this was. Nevertheless, his father would be proud. He wasn't a coward, not anymore, because tomorrow he would go hunting. He would go and hunt down every single member of whatever species had set its ugly foot on planet Plant and kill him or her with the utmost pleasure that possible.  
  
***  
  
When Draawz came back into the land of the conscious, things had changed. He didn't know it yet, but it was true. The position that he had held, until the moment that the small creatures had finished off Neorg, was not his anymore. It wasn't anyone's position anymore as the group had ceased to be. After the death of Neorg, small flocks of Saiyans, mostly friends of each other had broken off of the main group and were starting a whole new existence away from the battle. Away from the hectic and constant present politics of the main group. Once this had started more and more groups had left until finally only five Saiyans and their children had remained under Draawz's rule. Yet Draawz's fall from power didn't end there, all though the next step was only temporarily. Anatak had namely chosen, while Draawz was still unconscious, to withdraw even from the small group that still choose to follow Draawz, but not before she promised that they would return when Draawz had healed. Of course, when Draawz opened his eyes and looked around in the cave where he was resting, he had no idea of that this all had happened, but he would learn about this later as it was first time for something else. The children had discovered that he had awakened. Three little Saiyans stormed towards him, two identical boys, both eight Earth years old and a five Earth years old girl.  
  
"[Daddy!]" All yelled as they jumped on Draawz.  
  
Draawz grunted in reply, he was far from recovered from the injuries he had sustained. He could not have been recovered from his wounds, as they were still only a couple of hours old.  
  
"[How are you, daddy?]"  
  
His daughter asked if he was all right and Draawz smiled, the only answer he had enough strength for. He knew that he was going to be all right eventually, he just needed some rest.  
  
"[Come, let's leave your father for the moment alone. He needs his rest.]"  
  
Anatak had appeared in the mouth of the cave and called the children. She was right of course, he needed his rest, but it had been nice to see them. He hadn't seen them since, well since just before the battle had started. Whenever that had been. He had no knowledge of time as he had no reverence. He closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep. He didn't even notice the children leaving. He didn't notice that Anatak stayed after the children had left, waiting for the time that he would fulfill the promise that he had made earlier this day. Before everything had gone wrong.  
  
***July 3, 384 BC, Outer reaches of the Plant system***  
  
A large ship shaped like a triangle floated in the silent reaches of space. On board where four roughly humanoid beings, about the size of a Tsufuru, with no hair, pale skin and large black eyes. They were known to the Saiyans as Srekam ed, the Creators, but they themselves didn't give a damn about this title. They were here to ensure that everything went according to plan, nothing more and nothing less. That the Saiyans looked at them as what technically were was of little concern to them. The Saiyans were only one part of the plan.  
  
"[Maximum dispersion reached. The insertion is a success.]"  
  
One of the beings, standing at the sensor console, gave the preliminary reports about the spread of the Saiyans. It was good, according to the captain.  
  
"[Good.]"  
  
They would remain here for some time to come. All the while, closely monitoring the Saiyans that they brought here. Ensuring that the Saiyans would have a good springboard for their plan.  
  
***  
  
Author's note: Well it became a lot longer then I expected, but that is not disaster or anything. As for the Saiyans and the aliens, yes I 'translated' their language. You will know why I gave the Saiyans another language then English, as it is an important plot point. 


	2. Politics Revised

POLITICS REVISED  
  
***August 24, 23 BC, Planet Plant***  
  
The sun was already disappearing behind the horizon when on a large landings platform, with a radius of almost half a kilometer and lying east of the capital, two fully armed battle groups gathered. They quickly were arranged by their commander in such away, that they stood opposite of each other, forming a corridor from and towards the landings platform. After five minutes of waiting, the Prechosen's shuttle would arrive here, carrying with them the reason why this all was set-up, but that was still five minutes away. An air car came to a stand still at one end of the corridor formed by the two battle groups and a Tsufuru servant stepped out of the car, while holding the door open.  
  
"I present to you General Naanab..."   
  
Before the servant could continue, the footmen in both of the battle groups aimed their rifles, which were still quite similar to their counterparts of a few hundred years earlier, at the sky and fired once. The sound of the firing rifles rolled over the landings platform and only when the echo died down, did the servant continue.  
  
"...And Supreme Minister Leppa."  
  
Again the footmen fired once into the air, followed this time by the appearance of two more Tsufuru, who both stepped out of the air car one at a time. The first to come out of the car was dressed in an elaborate version of the standard uniform, that the footmen wore. The second however was clearly not a member of the military as he did wear a red toga with a silver lining instead of a variation on the standard military uniform. Both began walk side by side through the corridor, followed by the servant, towards the other side where the shuttle would land. The general took the liberty of throwing a quick, nervous glance at the sky. He hated the waiting, but at the same time he was relieved that the light of a full moon didn't yet greet him.  
  
"Nervous for the arrival of Prechosen Ieb'draa and the representatives of the Milky Way Alliance, he brings with him?"  
  
General Naanab turned to look at the Supreme Minister, who walked beside him. When the full moon arrives, vermin could always ruin everything, so from a certain point of view he was nervous for the arrival the Prechosen and the representatives. He answered.  
  
"Something like that."  
  
A short silence settled, during which the Supreme Minister looked at the General for a further explanation. The General however was no longer conscious of everything around him, even though he remained walking. He was, if he had been a sleep earlier, sleepwalking  
  
***  
  
***The General blinked twice with his eyes and looked around. He was in a control room of some sort, where four creatures were performing their tasks. The creatures were bipedal, could even be described as Tsufurunoid as they were of the same height as the General and had the same general physique. Yet they were obviously not Tsufuru, because they lacked hair of any kind and had a pale gray skin, which seemed to be covered with some sort of slime. The General turned away in disgust, earning one of the creatures' attentions in the progress.  
  
[Ah General Bester Naanab, so good of you to join us.]  
  
The General turned back in shock and stared into a pair of large black eyes. Did he just hear a voice speak in his head? The mouth of the creature moved.  
  
[I am sorry. This must come to you as a shock, but I was under the impression that you had encountered telepaths once before.]  
  
The General blinked, sure he had encountered telepaths before, but he had only been a four-year old boy back then. Besides those telepaths had been small, round and fluffy, not some slimy perversion of a Tsufuru. The telepath looked down and the General could mentally slam his head on the nearest desk available. No thought was private when one was near a telepath.  
  
[You don't have to worry about your thoughts, we are used to them by now. I was merely remembering the unfortunate extinction of the Niliversian or small, round and fluffy telepaths as you call them.]  
  
Embarrassment was written on the General's face, he wasn't used to be talked to in this way. Only three others ever talked to him like this and all three didn't have complete access to his mind. Still, he thought as his internal defenses came to live, how could he have possibly remembered the name of the species, when he had only been four at the time.  
  
[There is no need to defend yourself, we haven't come here to attack you in any kind of way. We are here to present you information.]  
  
The General opened his mouth to speak, but then realized his question had already been answered. He formed a new question to ask, hoping that this one wouldn't be answered before he had asked it.  
  
"What information?"  
  
He didn't know if he the creatures could hear, he had only spotted rudimentary ears, but he was sure that they had got his thoughts.  
  
[Information that links one of the members of the Milky Way Alliance with your personal plague, the Saiyans.]  
  
The thought 'sounded' different then the first ones and the General's attention shifted from the first creature, to a second one, who joined the first. The two creatures turned to face each other and the second began to speak.  
  
"[The Tsufuru Supreme Minister is getting suspicious of the General absence. We must return him now.]"  
  
"[We're not done here yet.]"  
  
With some amusement, the General noted that the creatures could speak and therefor could also hear. The rudimentary ears were good for something, after all. He strained himself to understand what they were saying.  
  
"[Continue later, it's vital for the mission that he goes back now.]"  
  
A piece of a puzzle, which he hadn't even been looking for, fell on its place.  
  
*These creatures have the same language as most of the Saiyans have. Can it be that these creatures are connected with the Saiyans? They share the same language, so that seems plausible. Yet if they share the same language, the connection must be deep enough that...*  
  
[Silence!]  
  
The mental command ended his strain of thoughts and he looked up, only to see four pairs of eyes looking at him. He opened his mouth to ask if they truly were connected to the Saiyans, but never got the chance to actually ask the question. A white light emitting out of the creatures' eyes silenced him. A strange haze covered his thoughts about Saiyan language; a haze that got the thicker with every second that passed. The General tried to hang onto the thoughts but found that he couldn't. Slowly the haze filled other parts of his brain, slowly letting every thought disappear. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, with as only effect that the haze was dispersed better. The struggle had been lost and the General surrendered himself.  
  
[Your companions begin to get suspicious, so we have to sent you back now. We will retrieve you later to finish this, but for now you will have to forget that this all has happened.]  
  
The General made a short bow and replied.  
  
"I live to obey."  
  
After the short bow and his reply, the General looked into the light emitted by the aliens. In the light he saw a small black dot that slowly grew in size he was drawn to it. He began to accelerate towards it; he wanted to accelerate towards it. It promised a cure for this hell of forgetfulness. Yet like so many cures, it did have a side effect. He was ripped out of this dream, without the information he had been promised, without any information. This period was now a blank page in his mind, utterly devoid of anything. The dot had been a black hole, which had sucked the last thoughts out of him.***  
  
***  
  
Lokor was like all 2806 other members of his kind a Saiyan and like 208 other Saiyans; he was the leader of a group. A group which was currently flying low under a clouded heaven, towards the nearest gap in the clouds. Today was the first day of Naam Ellov or full moon in English. Lokor looked back over his shoulder towards the thirteen other members of his group. The two elders of the group, Lokor's own parents, flew behind him, hell bend on one last battle, before death took them away. Behind them his woman and the three other couples flew with in there midst the four children of the group. For the children it would be there first full moon period, for the others there second or third. Full moons were after all a rare event on planet Plant. Lokor looked in front of him and spotted the necessary clearing in the distance. They were in luck, the clearing was near one of the city's made by the dwarves. He executed a roll of joy, but stopped midway. His eyes grew wide; something large was breaking through the clouds.  
  
***  
  
The first thing that General Naanab noticed when he came back in the land of the conscious was that the Supreme Minister was talking to him, but couldn't make out yet what he was saying. Everything was still far too fuzzy to make out things like speech. The second thing he noticed was that he stood still, waiting at the end of the corridor for the Prechosen's shuttle to arrive. How he got there he had no idea, as the last thing that he could remember was that he was still walking towards the spot where he now was standing. Somewhere in between was a blank were something should have been. He shook his head, why did he feel like his entire brain had just been pulled apart by black hole?  
  
"...Whatever your problem is, it will have to wait until later, because the Prettiness has arrived."  
  
The General turned to look at his companion in confusion and then looked up. In awe he noticed, that the Supreme Minister was indeed right. The Prettiness' shuttle, a flying disk large enough to fill the entire landings platform with the exception of the area where the awaiting party was standing thanks to a 'cut' in the disk, gracefully finished it's maneuvers through the clouds, leaving a turbulent mass of swirling clouds behind and started it's final decent. The General gulped, no matter how many times he had seen it; he still found it to be one of the most awe-inspiring views. An opinion that was sure to be shared by the hundreds of delegates on board of the shuttle. The shuttle landed and opened it's massive door, while at the same time a equally large gangway was lowered until it hit the ground a meter in front of the General and Supreme Minister. Both the men fell on their left knee, bowed and would remain in this position until told otherwise. Behind them, the servant and the soldiers did the same. A small robed figure, made even smaller by the gigantic door, appeared in the door opening and moved down the gangway followed by a cordon of elite guards. Behind them, a stream of all kinds of aliens followed, some looking around in wonder, most adjusting to the higher gravity and one or two looking, despite their diplomatic smile, bored. The figure that had first appeared stopped at the end of the gangway and gestured with his hands for the General and Supreme Minister to rise. He acknowledged their presence with a nod, which was replied by a short bow from the side that had just risen. Only then did the Prechosen, dressed in a identical robe as the Supreme Minister save for the fact that it had a golden lining instead of silver, step on planet Plant's soil.  
  
"Welcome home, Prechosen. I hope that your trip was productive."  
  
While the Supreme Minister said this, the cordon of elite troops moved past them and took position in front of the battle groups, who all rose to there feet in response.  
  
"Of course, isn't it always."  
  
The Supreme Minister bowed and the Prechosen shifted his attention to the General.  
  
"And General, are the security arrangements ready for this event?"  
  
"Yes Prechosen, all though I must say that my opinion about this matter has not..."  
  
The Prechosen raised his hand, causing the General to shut up. To know what the Prechosen meant was to survive and the General knew this as no one else did, he had been raised with this principal, as he wasn't chosen by the people like the Supreme Minister. Still, he continued to have his doubts about the intelligence behind the move of the Prechosen. Saiyans were dangerous and unpredictable, especially during a period of full moon.   
  
A small earthquake shook the ground and some of the DG helmets of the troops came online. The General knew that this was going to be a frequent event during this period of the moon cycle.  
  
***  
  
Lokor couldn't believe his luck, the Srekam ed were obviously smiling upon him. Less then a minute ago, a large metallic object, which looked like the flying machines of the dwarves, had torn the clouds apart. Ten second after that, Lokor had caught the first glimpses of the full moon. They had landed and separated to give each other room for the transformation. Now the time was there, for the second time in his life Lokor looked at the full moon in all it's glory. He unfolded his tale from his waist and continued to stare at the moon. He realized, with his last sane thoughts, that he wasn't as close to the city as he had originally had planned, but he didn't cared about that. He was washed away in the tidal wave that washed every essence of Lokor away and replaced it with something entirely different, something that was so much simpler, so much deadlier. The body of Lokor looked at the moon and the new essence that occupied it heard it's own heartbeat. Muscles bulged, canines were developed further, and a red filter was placed before his eyes, as the body began to grow into something monstrous. The piece of animal fur that most Saiyans wore, was ripped apart by the growing body and was finally replaced by a fur that was it's own. Finally the bulking body began to grow and develop more monkey-like features, next to the tale, until he stood as high as a small flat. An ear deavening roar was let out by fourteen Oozarus at once as the Saiyans had all finished their transformation. An earthquake was created as the creatures crushed the ground around them, with fists and feet. Ki beams were shot out the mouths as the Oozarus let out a second roar. The nightmare that would hold planet Plant in its grip for the next three years had just started.  
  
***  
  
*I couldn't do anything to prevent this, I couldn't do anything to prevent this, I couldn't...*  
  
This reminder shot through the head of General Naanab as he looked into the eyes of the Prechosen. Eyes that told the General that he was to blame for this.  
  
*I am not to blame for this, this whole event is beyond my control and it is not like I didn't warn him.*  
  
"General Naanab, I want you in my office as soon as this is over. You told me that this wouldn't happen."  
  
*Oh no, no, no, you told me that I should do this and I forced by you to do this.*  
  
The thought never was converted into speech, to openly defy the Prechosen was to sign your own death warrant and the General had already pushed his luck as far as it could possibly go in the eyes of the Prechosen.  
  
"What is going on, what does the General have to do with the earthquake?"  
  
Unnoticed, the current Chairmen of the Milky Way Alliance had joined the three Tsufuru's. All three turned and looked at the Human without a nose, which stood as tall as they did.  
  
"Nothing Chairmen Hazel." The Prechosen assured him.  
  
"Then why..."  
  
The Chairmen stopped as a pressure wave reached the group and turned around in the direction from which the pressure wave came. Explosions and fading energy beams filled the sky, followed by more energy beams, some of which exploded and others just faded away, just as another earthquake reached them.  
  
"A weapons test? Prechosen Ieb'draa, why wasn't I informed of this?"  
  
The Prechosen glared at General Naanab, who gulped and took an step back against his own will, then returned his attention on the Chairmen.  
  
"The testing is still in an early phase and I hadn't expected it to be so..."  
  
A third earthquake shook the ground as the Prechosen searched for a word to describe the 'weapons test'.  
  
"Promising, devastating, dangerous."  
  
The Chairmen gave three options, but none were fitting according to the Prechosen as he found his words.  
  
"...Exactly, it's all three. Promising, because it holds tons of potential. Devastating, because it could lay waste to an entire world and finally dangerous, because we can't yet control the entire process."  
  
"Hmz, it sounds good, but wouldn't it be better if you would take the tests away from your home planet. It would be unfortunate if we would lose such an asset to the Milky Way Alliance."  
  
General Naanab shuddered, the way in which the Chairmen brought the words send chills down his spine. It was almost as if the Chairman was more interested in the weapon then in the Tsufuru. The Prechosen however, didn't seem to care or was a very good actor.  
  
"Yes, that would be good, once that we won't have to worry about safety as much as we have to do now. Could you arrange a planet for us?"  
  
The Chairmen nodded.  
  
"Of course I can do that, now may I suggest that we go inside. The test seems be getting out of control."  
  
As if on cue, a new series of earthquakes almost rocked them of their feet and light shock wave rolled past them.  
  
"Yes of course. Supreme Minister Leppa can you signal the hover buses to pick us up."  
  
The Supreme Minister bowed and tapped with his hand on a device that was hidden behind his left ear.  
  
"Send the hover buses."  
  
A silent answer was returned and the Supreme Minister turned to the Prechosen.  
  
"The Hover buses are send for, they should arrive in the next five minutes."  
  
"Thank you, Supreme Minister. Now let's go."  
  
Both the Chairmen and the Prechosen began to walk towards the edge of the landings platform through the corridor formed by the soldiers. The representatives of the Milky Way Alliance followed them as the three Tsufuru, who had been waiting for them, remained where they were. Two standing and one kneeling.  
  
"I don't like this. We have got ourselves in quite a mess. How are we ever going to be able to match the power of the Saiyans?"  
  
The Supreme Minister shook his head, while he said this.  
  
"It should be possible, we have developed weapons of mass destruction before the time of the Ziener's resurrection."  
  
"Yes, we have, but nothing has ever proven itself to be strong enough to even begin to match the power of the Saiyans, not to mention their ape form and besides even if we would succeed it would have to match the 'show' that the Saiyans presented us."  
  
"We will figure out something, that's what we are best at after all."  
  
The Supreme Minister nodded and both the Tsufuru looked on as the stream of aliens led by the Chairmen and Prechosen walked past them.  
  
"You know, I know a species that has what we need, or at least something similar."  
  
The General's eyes grew slightly in size.  
  
"Which species?"  
  
"The Chairmen's of course, at least in a way. The Earth-bound Humans had similar technology in the past when they relied heavily on machines to do their work. They stopped using it completely though, when an accident lead to a robot revolt that nearly killed two third of their world population in the following war. Nevertheless as proud as most Humans are, they wouldn't waste valuable technology, so they still have it around."  
  
"Can you get it?"  
  
The Supreme Minister shook his head.  
  
"No, the Humans are too much like us, they are hesitant to tell others about their failures."  
  
"Then how do you know all of this."  
  
It remained quiet as the Supreme Minister kept his mouth shut, only to turn towards the servant a minute later.  
  
"You can get up now, we need to leave as it is. I don't intent on seeing Saiyans and I am sure that you don't want to see them either."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"Don't mention it, now let's go."  
  
Both the Supreme Minister and the servant started to move, but stopped when they noted that General Naanab wasn't following them.  
  
"Aren't you coming?"  
  
The General shook his head.  
  
"I have some things to take care of here. I'll join you later on."  
  
"Very well, come servant."  
  
General Naanab watched as the two other Tsufuru moved away from him. He hadn't really had much to do here, except for sending the troops home when this whole thing was over, but it gave him some time to think and for some reason his mind chose the Human race to think about.  
  
*The Humans are too much like us, they are hesitant to tell others about their failures.*  
  
Supreme Minister Leppa's description of the Human attitude entered his mind and he began to wonder what more they had in common with each other. With the space-going Humans it was more or less obvious. Countless partnerships in business between the space-going Humans and Tsufuru had been raised in the time that the two species had been in contact with each other and with each meeting the link was confirmed for him. Yet for the General, the space-going Humans were little more then genetically engineered pieces of filth. He was more interested in the connection between the original Humans and Tsufuru, but there too he reached the same conclusions, even though they were no co-Earth-bound Human and Tsufuru partnerships in existence today and the Earth-bound Humans had physically a more Saiyan-like appearance. The spirit of both the Humans and Tsufuru was similar and that was what mattered to the General and disturbed him at the same time. For didn't he receive a chilled spine, due to the words of the Chairmen. He shook the disturbed feelings off, because he received them often enough thanks to the Prechosen and some scientists of research division and if the Humans possessed the solution for the problem for him at hand, he would gladly ignore any feelings for them at all. Even the frightening ones about their so called connection with Saiyans, which their appearance provoked.  
  
*Genetically engineered pieces of filth.*  
  
The description of the space-going Humans re-entered the mind of the General, when the delegation from Earth walked by and it had to be true. The space-going Humans were after all, only half as tall, more solidly build and certainly a hell of a lot more resilient against the effects of gravity then Earth-bound Humans. Not to mention that the space-going Humans missed a nose, which seemed to be engineered for the sole reason of negotiation with some of the less-pleasant smelling sentient species.  
  
*They must be genetically engineered, there is no way that evolution would've been the reason behind the transformation, certainly given the relatively young age of Humanity.*  
  
[You are right, now take this a step further and remember that on Earth, other species are engineered in such a way that they can play an active and intelligent role in their society.]  
  
The General was overcome by a strange sense of deja vu as he looked around for the source of the voice in his head. There weren't any telepaths in the Milky Way Alliance; at least as far as he could remember, so it couldn't be that one of the beings in the moving stream was the source of it. He closed his eyes for a moment and saw a pale face with large black eyes. He opened his eyes in shock, only to close them again. He left this land of the conscious again to visit his alien 'friends'.  
  
***  
  
***The General was in the control room again and looked around. This whole setting seemed awfully familiar to him, but he couldn't place it just yet.  
  
[Ah General, so good from you to join us once more.]  
  
*Once more? I am sure that I would have remembered if I had encountered them before.*  
  
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw several creatures, with the same face he had seen just moments, before appear. He turned his attention to them.  
  
[In time you will remember our previous meeting, but now we must turn our attention on the reason why we first brought you here, we haven't got much time.]  
  
*They are telepaths, they must be the ones that talked to me before I was brought to where ever I may now be.*  
  
A gulf of fear, harboring a warning within, washed over him. He wouldn't live long if he gave into these telepaths. The gulf however disappeared as quick as it had come and General Naanab shook whatever lingering feelings he had about the gulf of fear away. He returned his attention on the beings before him, which all looked up and were obviously strained by something. The General blinked and looked around for whatever the reason of the strain would be. He could discover none and a minute later the stress, for the part that was readable for the General, vanished.  
  
[General, like I said before, we haven't got much time. If you would come over here, we would like to show you something.]  
  
Hesitating for a moment and thus not fast enough according to the aliens, the General received a strange nudge in his back and stumbled towards the beings. Once he was close to the telepaths, the General couldn't help but feel awed by the sheer power emitting from the aliens. It wasn't a power like any he had felt or seen before, not even like the bodily power that the Saiyans held in them. No, this was more then anything else an intelligent power, a power that felt so complete that one couldn't help but feel tiny and insignificant and the General was no exception to this. He had felt tiny and insignificant before, the first few times that he had encountered a Saiyan, the times that his father had still been around to advise him on matters, his first meeting with the Prechosen and any other higher ranking Tsufuru for that matter and of course the first time that he came across a Zessen, a horned, six legged creature that stood over four meters tall, in a zoo. However all of this fell into nothing in comparison to this experience and slowly but surely his whole world began to crumble and collapse. He closed his eyes and pieced himself together; he was the General of the whole Tsufuru army for crying out loud. In some part of his brain this notion was backed up by other thoughts and slowly he regained his confidence in himself. He opened his eyes and his whole world came crashing down on him once more.  
  
[Welcome to Taapneiz, the planet that was once the home of my people.]  
  
He wasn't in the control room anymore that was for sure, yet the place where he was did remind him of his own planet. The feeling of familiarity could have had something to do with the fact that the sky had the same color as the Plant's sky and the plants and water had the same general color too, but that wasn't it. The General looked up and stared into the eyes of an exact replica of a Saiyan Oozaru except for the fact that this one hadn't had the usual brown color, it was golden.  
  
*What in the name of the Ziener is going on, that thing looks exactly like a golden Oozaru.*  
  
The great ape snapped out of whatever trance it was in and let out a feral roar. Some various chunks of what judging by the amount once were multiple brains landed on the General, which caused the General to look at them and immediately vomit. He had been on battlefields multiple times, but never before had he been covered in brains. Once he was done vomiting he looked up and saw that the golden ape was somewhat subdued again.  
  
*Apparently this thing is more control then his brown counterparts.*  
  
[No, he isn't. Look to your left and you will understand why the Oozaru is as calm as he is now.]  
  
The General looked to his left and saw a group of aliens similar to the ones that he had met in the control room.  
  
"Why do they..."  
  
[They are trying to subdue them with the means of mind control, but they will fail. This Oozaru is far to strong to be mind controlled.]  
  
"...Stand so close to the...Mind controlled Oozaru?"  
  
The last part of the question was more a new question, then a part of the original. Mind controlled Oozarus, possibilities about the use of Oozarus began to raise into the mind of the General, to be shattered again when he saw the brains of the aliens explode out of there skulls and land everywhere, the golden ape was free again.  
  
[As you can see we can't control Oozaru's for very long. Their brains, how simple they may be, are too powerful, besides even if we could control them long enough we would still don't have sufficient numbers to control a sufficient amount of them.]  
  
The golden ape smashed his fist into the ground just as another group of the aliens approached. A giant crater was formed around the fist as everything, excluding the ape, was destroyed in a radius of ten kilometers and for the first time since this all had started did the General actually fear the ape itself. He thought that he was killed and found that he was lifting into the air, flying towards the next dimension. Fear for death began to take over; he hadn't planned to die on some unknown planet.  
  
*Unknown planet, certainly a planet with inhabitants with these skills would be known through out the known galaxy.*  
  
Then another thing hit him, a quote.  
  
*...Even if we could control them long enough we would still don't have sufficient numbers to control a sufficient amount of them.*  
  
Yet Saiyans were never very plentiful on planet Plant, even now with an almost constant growth of their numbers, only around 3000 Saiyans were estimated to live. The General turned to the being he knew was next to him.  
  
[I've said it in the beginning, Taapneiz, the planet that was once the home of my people.]  
  
Shock became the dominant feature written on the General's face.  
  
*Was it really possible for Saiyans to blow up planets and if so why hadn't they yet blown up planet Plant.*  
  
An energy beam, similar to the one Saiyans use, ripped through him, but did no damage. A second later a shock wave came from the other side and once again nothing happened to him. Then everything became for a moment dark as a piece of molten lava, that was rapidly cooling off in space, passed through him.  
  
[No, this Saiyan is the exception; he was an early experiment of their creators. Something that truly surpassed whatever it purpose had been.]  
  
"Why would they want a less powerful version?"  
  
[Look around you planets are blown up like it is nothing at all and in about ten seconds this entire solar system plus some of the neighboring stars and their planets.]  
  
The General thought that he picked up some sort of emotion in the mind voice of the alien, but dismissed it as irrelevant. Alien emotions were difficult to interpret, certainly when you just encountered the species for the first time.  
  
"How?"  
  
[Watch and learn]  
  
The alien indicated his surroundings with gesture of both of his arms and the Tsufuru General looked around. Pieces of lava, that had long since frozen up, floated around them, behind him the source of the lava had become unstable and the core fluctuated wildly, but there weren't any signs visible that this piece of universe was about to be blown up. Then against the background of a darkening, but otherwise still intact planet Taapneiz, a small light spot became visible. It rapidly grew in brilliance and soon after the light was large enough to be picked up by magnetic flows in the upper atmosphere and curved back down towards the surface. Light began to fill the enormous sphere that was formed this way and finally after what seemed like an endless lingering moment, the sphere exploded. On instinct, the General raised his arms in front of his face and closed his eyes, in order to protect himself. It was however a useless gesture, the explosion had engulfed him before he even had reacted. He thought that he heard a light chuckle, but dismissed it as he was far too scared and for the second time in a very short time feared that he had died.  
  
*Second time, I thought that one could only die once.*  
  
[That is correct and you are by no means dead, General.]  
  
The General opened his eyes and looked around, he was back in the control room. It started to become somewhat of a regular occurrence. He turned to the alien from whom he knew that the being was still standing next to him.  
  
"What did just happen?"  
  
[What you just experienced were the last moments of planet Taapneiz in a state that is identical to the one you experience when you are dreaming.]  
  
"This all was then just a dream?"  
  
[No, this was not just all a dream. It all did happen, only 392 years ago and you of course weren't there.]  
  
It all slowly began to become clearer for the General.  
  
"You spoke of the creators of the Saiyans, who are they?"  
  
[Do you remember what I've said to you before you were brought here?]  
  
"That thing about the Human genetic engineering."  
  
[Yes, that thing. Now if you do what I said and take that step and you will find that the Humans are the ones responsible for the Saiyan crisis.]  
  
Silence settled in as General Naanab began to ponder on this. In his mind denial reigned supreme, as Humans couldn't be responsible for the crisis that plagued planet Plant for so long, could they. He remembered his chilled spine triggered by the words of the Chairmen, but he quickly dismissed it. Why would Humans even be interested in the kind of technology if they could create creatures like Saiyans, almost 400 years ago? He remembered his fear of Earth-bound Humans, due to their similarity with the Saiyans. He remembered the other genetic creations of the Humans and the stories of their Great War against Artificial Intelligence, which started 400 years ago and suddenly it all made sense, or did it? Doubt took over again and he was still nowhere.  
  
[We all understand, we too couldn't understand it at first, but look at this.]  
  
The being handed some sort of data pad over to the General.  
  
"What is this?"  
  
[It is a data pad containing the genetic structure of two bipedal creatures, one Human and one Saiyan, to be more precise, an Earth-bound Human and a Plant Saiyan.]  
  
The General stared at the data pad, which depicted two swirling double helixes, one above the other with some written text in a language General Naanab couldn't read with it.  
  
"Which one is the Human and which one the Saiyan, because to me they look exactly the same."  
  
[Precisely, they are the same. Well there is one small difference, highlighted here, but that is the part that lends a Saiyan its power.]  
  
The creature next to the General indicated an enlarged section of some portion of both the helixes, beneath the main picture.  
  
"But...but...how?"  
  
The General was left without most of his vocabulary, while he continued to stare at the picture of the swirling double helixes.  
  
[How did we get it? General Bester Naanab, I thought that of all people on planet Plant you would understand it the most. Waging a war cannot be done successfully without decent information.]  
  
The General nodded; the telepath had been correct in it's assumption about war and for a telepath information would be the least of its problems. Thoughts began to surround a concept that had been in his mind since his father had tried it before him. The integration of telepaths in the military.  
  
"I have a proposition for you and your kind."  
  
[The answer is no. We are with too few to supply the things you want and besides you couldn't possibly supply us with the thing we want.]  
  
Surprised to say the least, the General tried it again, but this time only succeeded in opening his mouth.  
  
[What we want is the complete destruction and guaranteed extinction of the Human race and all of its subspecies and genetic creations and that is something you can not give us given your position in the Milky Way Alliance.]  
  
A bit angered and provoked, the General accepted what he saw as a challenge.  
  
"Wanna bet?"***  
  
***  
  
When the General reopened his eyes, a new sense of purpose was written in them. Determination filled his mind and looked at his troops. It felt good to have such large goal to aim for and even better, knowing that he would finally be able to exact revenge on the ones responsible for the biggest plague ever.  
  
"Uhm General, shouldn't we get out of here, the Saiyans are getting very close now, sir."  
  
The General looked around for the source of the voice and found a private standing next to him, who was slightly nervous.  
  
"Saiyans?"  
  
"Yes sir, there are Saiyans sighted at the horizon on the north side of the landings platform."  
  
"Very well private, give the commander permission to clear the landings platform."  
  
Vaguely the "Yes sir." from the private was received in the subconsciouses of the General's brain. He turned around and began to walk away from the two battle groups. The General was heading towards the north side of landings platform, as he needed inspiration for an idea that would enable him to win the 'bet'.  
  
***  
  
Author's note: I am working on a dictionary for Saiyan terminology, expect a part in the next chapter. 


	3. The First

THE FIRST  
  
February 1, 19 BC, Planet Plant  
  
General Naanab, now the supreme ruler of the whole of planet Plant and every Tsufuru colony, sat behind his desk and watched a scene on a monitor, that was integrated in the desk itself. The scene showed how six battle groups left the fortress of the Tsufuru High Command in the middle of the night. Most of the men, who walked there, knew nothing of the plan that would make this mission so different from any similar mission in the past, nor would they ever know. The General shuddered involuntarily from pleasure as he remembered the sheer ingenuity of the plan and how it combined perfectly with the normal vengeful measures that are taken for the three years of chaos the apes had caused. The General smiled; today would be the start of a project that would ensure the constructive use of the apes.  
  
*Apes, the evidence of how Saiyans had come to be, had been right in front of their eyes for constant periods of three years. It was only natural for Humans to give the Saiyans the largest power when they had been turned back by the light of the full moon into a primitive form in the Human evolutionary path. The light of the full moon; there was the legend of the werewolf on Earth, a man turned by the light of the full moon in a creature of darkness and animalistic power, just like a Saiyan.*   
  
The General shook his head and laughed.  
  
*Everything became so obvious after the telepaths had pointed me in the right direction and showed me the truth about the Saiyans. So obvious in fact, that I wondered why no one had ever figured it out before.*  
  
The battle groups moved out of the monitors' view and the General turned back to the tasks that lay on his desk, but he didn't just yet start. Instead he let his mind drift and remembered the day on which this all had started.  
  
August 24, 23 BC, Planet Plant  
  
It had been late in the evening when he had returned from his Saiyan-watching after an eventful day during which he had learned the truth about the Saiyans and to say that the Prechosen had not been too thrilled about it, was an understatement. The Prechosen had summoned him and that was when the games would begin.  
  
"General Naanab, I ordered you to report to my office as soon as the whole thing was over! Where were you?"  
  
The threatening voice of the Prechosen seemed to be amplified by the room itself and this was actually the case. For the room, which basically looked like any other large office of a world leader, was modified by the present Prechosen in such a way that he the room itself would amplify the tone of his voice and in this particular case the tone was full of anger.  
  
The General took a step back and contemplated how to bring the discoveries to the Prechosen and gives a reasonable explanation where he was in the mean time and why he hadn't brought the information right to the Prechosen. The General continued to try and find a correct answer, during the Prechosen's impatience grew.  
  
"Well?"  
  
The General took another step back as he looked at the Prechosen, whose features suddenly softened.  
  
"I understand that you are not responsible for the mess with the Saiyans. No General has ever been able to truly to stop the full might of the Saiyans, but I would've thought that you would at least attempt to stop them. Your father did a better job at it in the last battle of his live."  
  
A muscle twitched in the face of the General, he took comments about his father's last battle personal. There had been nothing his father could've changed about the situation. In fact, in the General's own eyes not even the legendary General Reep could've have turned the situation at the battle of Banaan. It had been a doomed battle to begin with, with a group of Oozarus surrounding a military base, which value never should have allowed the death of so many men and shouldn't even have required his father's personal attention in the first place. To make matters worse, the small, round and fluffy telepaths his father had been preparing for a task of information gathering were send with his father in the hope that they would be ready to do some good. Needless to say, the battle had been a total failure, with thousands of soldier's dead, the total destruction of the military base, the loss of the telepaths and the General's father, who had been severely injured during the battle, downgraded to a simple advisor by the Prechosen. The General eyed the Prechosen and swallowed any feelings of hate and revenge he harbored for the Prechosen, because of this decision. His father's memory was nothing in comparison to the discovery he had made today and thus now was not the time to express the feelings of hate.  
  
"I am sorry Prechosen Ieb'draa, but something rather important and rather interesting came up."  
  
"More important then this. May I remind the General that I promised the Chairmen of the Milky Way Alliance, a weapon like nothing we have ever been able to produce, due to your failure. What could possibly more important right now?"  
  
"The origin of Saiyans, or rather the identity of the bastards that unleashed them on this planet."  
  
It became quiet as the Prechosen opened his mouth to speak, but could not speak. The General allowed himself to smile a little bit, something, which he regretted instantaneously.  
  
"General if you think that this is the time to joke around, you're sadly mistaken."  
  
The General swallowed, but was otherwise unimpressed. He knew what he had to do.  
  
"No, Prechosen Ieb'draa, this isn't a joke. I know the identity of the creators of the Saiyans."  
  
"Well since, you seem to be sincere in your believes or at least you think that you are sincere let me hear the identity of your would be Saiyan creators."  
  
"Yes, Prechosen Ieb'draa. The creators of the Saiyans are the Humans or at least the Earth-bound Humans."  
  
The Prechosen's face began to brighten as heard these words, then began to show signs that the Prechosen was going to erupt in a laughing fit, any second now.  
  
"Prechosen? It is true you know, think about it. Why would a Saiyan transform into an ape during the full moon? Why would a Saiyan look like a Human in the first place? Why..."  
  
"Silence!"  
  
The order was clear for the General and he kept his mouth shut, but the voice with which the order was given wasn't anything like the normal commanding voice of the Prechosen. General Naanab gained a confused expression and frowned as the Prechosen began to crack up and moments later burst into laughing.  
  
"General, may I ask for what kind of a fool you take me. Now tell me where you heard this nonsense in the first place and then tell me, where you truly where during this time."  
  
The General remained silent as he decided what to say, as he couldn't exactly say that aliens abducted him, who gave him this information. Yet, what else could he say? Several possibilities shot through his head and after a few moments he picked one of them.  
  
"The theory was brought up by a private, who commented after seeing the Humans that if he didn't know better, he would've thought that the Humans were the original ancestors of the Saiyans. Afterwards he took this idea a couple of steps further, spurred on by some friends and came up with this theory. Now he has yet to give any direct evidence, but his indirect evidence was good enough to give the matter some thought and the more I thought about it the more sense it all made. And this is where I have been all this time, to check the arguments that the private used."  
  
"Obviously this private has a gift for argumentation if it succeeded in convincing you in such a short time. Perhaps you should allow the private to go to the diplomatic corps. We could use some extra diplomats, as a certain General has created quite a diplomatic mess. Have you thought of a solution by the way for that problem."  
  
"Yes, I have. As it turns out the technology that is required for this already exists on Earth. It is just forgotten."  
  
The Prechosen opened his mouth to answer, but his personal COM link was faster and let itself be heard.  
  
"You're dismissed General, we will continue this conversation later."  
  
The General bowed slightly and spoke.  
  
"As you wish, Prechosen."  
  
Then he turned, left and as he did this, he picked up the first part of the conversation over the COM link of the Prechosen.  
  
"Chairmen Hazel what an unexpected pleasure...No, the weapon is not yet ready for transportation, nor will it be for some time...Yes, I understand that, Chairmen Hazel. The engineers are working as hard as they can...Of course...Yes Chairmen Hazel...We will do whatever we can..."  
  
The General smiled, it was good to be reminded of the fact that even the Prechosen had people to listen too. It was something that he could use in future conversations with the Prechosen.   
  
***  
  
Exactly half an hour later, when the General's eyes slowly became heavier and his mind told him that he really should take a nap, a furious Prechosen entered the General's office.  
  
"General, you said that the Humans send the Saiyans to us and that they have a weapon that would suit our need for a massive beam cannon, correct?!"  
  
"I do know of the Saiyans, but for the beam cannon you really should go to the Supreme Minister as he first mentioned it."  
  
"That would be a yes, right?!"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Now give me one reason why the Humans would send Saiyans to us?!"  
  
"Simple, it is known as a preemptive strike, weaken the enemy before you actually engage him and if this battle is fought with hardware or minds, it really doesn't make a difference."  
  
"Now I see, so this all was just to launch the space-going Humans on the positions of power!"  
  
"That's the theory, yes. Prechosen Ieb'draa, may I ask what happened?"  
  
The Prechosen took a breath and for the first time since he entered the office of the General he looked somewhat like the normal Prechosen, reasonably calm and in control of himself  
  
"Let's just say I the same private that convinced you, showed me the truth and now has totally convinced me."  
  
The General gulped; he didn't understand something, why would the aliens first visit him and then the Prechosen. Had he failed and did the aliens now found him disposable? The General returned his attention on the Prechosen.  
  
"So General, do you have a plan ready to make the Humans pay?"  
  
"No, I was under the impression that we would continue our conversation about that later."  
  
"It doesn't matter, just get the plan done quickly. We can't let them get away with this much longer."  
  
"Yes Prechosen and what should we do with the super weapon we are suppose to create."  
  
"I don't care, just get rid of it. We can't risk that we are exposed and that super weapon is a huge risk factor."  
  
"Very well then, it shall be done."  
  
"Good, now get some sleep we have a lot of planning ahead of us tomorrow."  
  
Before the General could respond the Prechosen spun around and left the office, letting the General behind with some doubts and a lot of questions.  
  
[Quite an aggressive one, isn't he.]  
  
February 1, 19 BC, Planet Plant  
  
The General couldn't help it but smile as he remembered the moment that a telepath showed themselves once more to him and prepared him for the role that he would have to take upon him the next day. Giving him all the information he needed and finally granting him a full insight in the politics of the Tsufuru court. He should've met those telepaths years ago. He had more then enough information to take down any of his competition.  
  
August 25, 23 BC, Planet Plant  
  
A figure clad in black sneaked through the hallways of the Tsufuru High Command. Had guards noticed him then they would have opened fire without a second thought and that would have been the end of the second most powerful Tsufuru on the planet. Fortunately for the figure, he possessed the skill of sneaking around unnoticed far to good for someone who was normally a political figure and thus he reached his target unnoticed. Well there was of course still a large door separating him from his target, but there was no doubt that his target was in there for he could hear his target's voice.  
  
"General have you thought of a manner to get rid of our super weapon."  
  
The figure lay his ear against the door to hear the answer, this was new information for him and information was always useful.  
  
"Several Prechosen Ieb'draa, but to limit the amount of suspicion in our direction, we could make one of the crewmembers go 'crazy', preferably of course a non-Tsufuru."  
  
"And how would you plan on doing this, the last time I checked we didn't have any weapons that could make someone go crazy."  
  
"Well Prechosen, project Taapneiz is still a long way from completion, but the developers feel confident that it will work and I must say that the first results look extremely promising."  
  
"Ah and how exactly does it work?"  
  
There was a small pause after which General Naanab spoke once again.  
  
"I guess Prechosen Ieb'draa, that a demonstration is in order to show you just how this project works."  
  
The figure that had been listening felt his muscles contract and knew seemingly on instinct alone that this was the moment to strike, so he did. Bursting through the door while drawing a small gun and removing his balaclava, the figure now clearly identifiable as Supreme Minister Leppa took aim with the small gun at the Prechosen. The Prechosen himself looked first in shock at the Supreme Minister then his expression in one of total rage as he shifted his gaze from the Supreme Minister to the General.  
  
"WHY YOU FILTHY, TREACHEROUS, PIIIE…"  
  
The curse that the Prechosen had started never was completed as the Supreme Minister simply pulled the trigger and thus ended the reign of power of the Prechosen. Following the shot an unsettling silence set in as the two people whom where still alive waited for the things to come. Finally after what seemed an eternity a somewhat dazed Supreme Minister spoke up.  
  
"You, you made me do this and there wasn't anything I could do about it. This is rich, I get the blame while you get the fame."  
  
"Just tell that to the guards, my old friend. If they let you live that is."  
  
The General pointed at the door through which the Supreme Minister had burst a minute earlier. The Supreme Minister looked over his left shoulder and saw that it was over. Two guards had their rifle aimed at him and more were joining them.  
  
"You see this what they would call checkmate in chess, which is an Earth game."  
  
The General waited for the Supreme Minister to turn back to face him and then continued.  
  
"But you knew that already, didn't you? You are after all such great friends with them."  
  
"Actually this situation is more like check, since there are still ways I can win."  
  
The Supreme Minister aimed his gun at the General, who simply shook his head and walked towards the Supreme Minister. He stopped only a meter or so away from the other Tsufuru and spoke with such a soft voice that he knew for sure that only the Supreme Minister could hear him.  
  
"You and I both know that you can't really kill someone else."  
  
"I've killed before and I can do it again."  
  
"Ah, yes but it wasn't really you who was in control of your body or am I wrong and you are really a killer."  
  
"Who was it otherwise?" The Supreme Minister asked. "Who else could control my body?"  
  
The General pointed up and smiled.   
  
"Why little grey men from outer space of course."  
  
The Supreme Minister looked confused, but didn't have the time to think about what the General just said as the General sidestepped and snapped his fingers. Two small energy beams went through the Supreme Ministers body and through the space the General occupied just moments before.  
  
"You know, I actually considered you to be a possible ally in this, but you just had to have connections with the Humans, now did you?"  
  
The General spoke one last time, knowing full well that the Supreme Minister would remember these words for the rest of his live in the next dimension as a guard came running towards him. The General turned to him.  
  
"Notify the state television that the Supreme Minister just killed the Prechosen and that he was killed in return to revenge the death of our beloved Prechosen. I shall make a official announcement of this over one hour and take the role of supreme ruler of the Tsufuru race upon me until we can find a suitable replacement."  
  
"Yes General Naanab."  
  
Of course there never came a suitable replacement and the General became just another dictator in the eyes of the common Tsufurus, albeit one without the demented love of the Prechosen for useless buildings.  
  
February 1, 19 BC, Planet Plant  
  
For a moment, the General considered what the telepaths had told him about the Prechosen. A rather touchy product of year's inbreeding by the previous Prechosens, who was determined not to make the same mistake his father, did; to produce an heir who could kill him. Knowing this the General had now no difficulty understanding why the telepaths wanted the Prechosen out of the way. He was a wildcard and definitely not wanted in the bid for power that would follow once the Humans were wiped out. Still the General was sure that the telepaths would be able to master the situation and control the Prechosen were he still alive.   
  
The General sighed, he knew where his thoughts were heading. In just a few moments he would begin to question himself about one all important question. Was he just a pawn in this all?  
  
He shook his head clear. Not that that would work, but it gave him the feeling that he was still in control. After this he checked his clock and decided that it was time to head to his apartment and see if his wife could get his mind away from the question.  
  
***  
  
Hours later, the six battle groups had finally entered their target area, which was a quite peaceful valley considering the violent nature of some of its inhabitants. The Tsufuru themselves however couldn't care less about the apparent peacefulness of the valley. They knew that Saiyans were down there and right now that was all that mattered, at least that went for most of them. Some of the Tsufuru nervously looked towards the sky, looking for the source of the power that had rendered even their most powerful weapons useless against the Saiyans. Today however, the moon wasn't full anymore and most of the Tsufuru set their minds on what they always would do after the occurrence of a full moon. Try to cut down the number of Saiyans and get some descent revenge for the nineteen cities that had been turned into smoldering craters and the countless others that had been damaged. In the Commander's head however there were no thoughts of revenge, only thoughts about the mission ahead.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile in a cave, most of the members Lokor's group was asleep, including the Lokor and his woman, Scepice. The last lunar cycle had brought the group great joy as it gave the group it's first child ever born during a lunar cycle, which meant that the boy's power would grow far more rapidly then normal. Yet also great sadness as Lokor's parents had died and thus left a huge gap in experience that had to be filled up. Next to this, the oldest child of the group, a girl, had left the group after finding a suitable male, which brought the total number of members down to twelve. Of those twelve, two Saiyans were awake and guarded the entrance of their cave. Unfortunately for Lokor's group, these guards were more then ready to sleep and thus it could happen that the Tsufuru came closer, yet remained unnoticed.   
  
One of the guards looked full expectation in the length of the valley in order to see if the sun was rising. His wish was granted as the sun's first rays touched the valley. His fellow guard noticed it too and gave him a nod. They both looked one final time across the valley, where animals of the day noticed the sunlight too and woke up out of their slumber. A large herd of the six-legged Zessen running across the valley signaled that this would be a good hunting day, but the two guards weren't interested in them, only in sleep. They turned around to walk into the cave, wake the others and get some sleep, but never got any further then turning around. The silent blanket of peace in the valley was pierced by erupting gunfire. Now was a single shot from a Tsufuru energy rifle was never enough to even kill the weakest among the Saiyans. Yet when hundreds of Tsufuru energy rifles were firing at a single Saiyan, only the toughest among the Saiyans could come out alive and unfortunately for the two guards, they weren't among the toughest of the Saiyans. The two Saiyans fell dead on the ground, scalded by the constant fire. The Commander of Tsufuru checked his scouter, the latest in data gathering equipment, to see if the two Saiyans were really dead. He got no reading from them.  
  
"Good," The Commander said. "Now kill the others, but leave the leading male and female over to Gamma squad!"   
  
***  
  
Inside the cave Lokor and the others were woken up by the sound of rifle fire from outside the cave, followed shortly by the loud, commanding voice of one of the Tsufuru.  
  
"Good, now kill the others but leave the leading male and female over to Gamma squad."  
  
Now Saiyans couldn't speak nor understand English, just as the Tsufuru couldn't speak or understand the Saiyan language, but Lokor and the other adults knew enough. They had encountered this particular situation before and knew that the words meant that unless they left this area, the smaller beings would soon fill this entire valley in order to try to kill them. Not that the smaller beings would succeed in that. They would be long since gone before the valley was full of enemies, but first it was time to have some fun. Lokor exchanged a glances with the rest of the adults as he licked his lips in anticipation.  
  
"[It is time to fight.]" Said Lokor menacingly.  
  
The other adults, as well as the three oldest children gave a small nod in agreement with the adults smiling darkly. The youngest member of the group however didn't nod or smile darkly, he just reached out to all the smiling faces, while cooing in delight.  
  
***  
  
Anticipation rose outside, as the Tsufuru prepared themselves for the moment that the Saiyans would come out. Some of the soldiers almost constantly shifted their hold of the energy rifle they would soon have to use, while others checked if the battery that would give the rifle it's energy was full. It didn't matter though what the Tsufuru soldiers did though, in each of their mind the same mixture of fear and anxiety was present and was slowly eating at the sanity of the soldiers. Despite all of their training and experience with dealing with Saiyans, most of the present soldiers had a state of mind that was no different, from the first Tsufuru soldiers that went up against the Saiyans. This partially due to the fact that despite the information the Tsufuru had gathered over the years, not much had changed when it came to fighting the Saiyans. This mission had still the same, enormous casualty rating as the first missions as well as the same vengeful drive. Some of Tsufuru looked up from the trivial things they were doing and looked at the cave entrance. There were still no Saiyans to be seen. Murmurs started to sound from the gathered Tsufuru soldiers. Why hadn't Saiyans showed themselves yet? Where there any Saiyans at all? The Commander sighed and took a deep breath, in order to discipline his soldiers. It wasn't necessary though, the Saiyans had finally showed themselves and the murmurs had been silenced. Then something happened on which the Tsufuru hadn't counted, Some of the Saiyans rose into the air and took off. The Commander blinked.  
  
*Saiyans aren't supposed to run. They hadn't run from a battle, since…since. Well since, a really long time.*  
  
The Commander stopped his thoughts about the retreating Saiyans and returned his attention and thoughts back on those remaining. He smiled, less Saiyans meant that this whole mission just became a lot easier. Unless of course it was the leading couple that just retreated. The Commander shrugged that thought of, if that had indeed been the leading couple he just had to fabricate another leading couple.  
  
***  
  
Lokor looked back over his shoulder, into the cave, that had been his group's home for all the months that had past since the Naam Ellov had ended. It had been here, that the group had come to terms with its new situation. Now this period was over and they would have to seek a new home once this was finished. Lokor turned and watched how two adult Saiyans flew off with the three youngest children. This left him of course with only four other Saiyans; Scepice, his oldest son and the two females, whose males just had been killed. It didn't matter though, not much anyway, as they just planned to have some fun, before they would quickly withdraw to a new location. These smaller beings were after all not worth that much when it came to fighting, so it would be futile if they stayed for a prolonged fight and be accidentally killed by some fluke.  
  
*I might as well order to retreat now and not risk anything. That might be wiser…*  
  
Lokor shook his head clear, what was he thinking here? A Saiyan doesn't just order a retreat, not without the situation looking hopeless. Lokor sighed, he should do what every proper Saiyan did and just order to attack, leaving the consequences for after the fight.  
  
"[Attack]"  
  
A wave of doubt hit Lokor that instant and he was again forced to shake his head clear. He knew after all that just ordering a retreat after ordering an attack didn't make him look that sane in the eye of the others. More emotions flooded over him, emotions that he knew weren't his own and he staggered under the sudden load.  
  
"[Lokor?]"  
  
He looked to his side and saw that it had been Scepice who had spoken and was now supporting him. Scepice's support had not come second to soon, because right at that instant a new flood of emotions and thoughts washed over him and nearly made him black out.  
  
"[Lokor?]"  
  
"[My head.]" Lokor managed to reply before a third flood made him indeed black out.  
  
***  
  
Doubt took over the mind of the Commander as he watched how the only remaining suitable male for the role of leader collapsed and showed no intention of getting up. In fact, seeing the scene from here, it seemed as though the Saiyan male showed no signs of live at all. Some times live just wasn't fair, the Commander though as he shifted his view from the collapsed male to the second, much younger male. In fact, it was the age of this male made it impossible for him to be a leader, as his power showed that he certainly had the potential to become a leader one day. Power, according to his scouter the older male still had some power in him left, so he should be still alive. However a Saiyan that simply collapsed before a battle, didn't seem to the Commander as a Saiyan who was fit to lead.  
  
[But he is.]  
  
Confusion made itself master of the Commander's body.  
  
*What the?*  
  
[I am sorry, I have forgotten how confused you lower beings get by simple telepathic communication.]  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Several soldiers around the Commander looked towards the Commander as though he had lost it, an act the Commander really couldn't blame them for, for he himself had similar thoughts.  
  
[Oh no, you're not crazy, but if you want to keep the soldier around you from getting that impression then I suggest that you don't say your thoughts out loud, but keep them for yourself.]   
  
*Easy enough, now who are you.*   
  
[Call me a friend for now, an ally perhaps later.]  
  
The Commander considered these words for a moment. He knew that whatever it was, hadn't answered his question, nor did he think that it would give him that answer anytime soon. Yet, in his mind this simple answer was enough for now, for the answer did feel right. The Commander returned his attention on the collapsed male and wondered for a moment what he should do with the situation.  
  
[Come on, that isn't that hard is it? Send in Gamma squad and take care of the male and female, while they are still incapacitated or distracted.]  
  
The Commander gave whoever was speaking to him a mental nod and began to give his command to Gamma squad.  
  
"Gamma squad move in to take the collapsed male and the female with him!"  
  
"Roger that!"  
  
From out of the back of the Tsufuru formation a group with pedal-like pistols moved towards Lokor and Scepice and once clear of the other Tsufuru's took aim at them. Scepice looked up and a look of confusion made itself master of her face, when the first silver beams connected with her.  
  
***  
  
Something was off, from the moment the first beams connected with her, Scepice knew that something was off. First of all she noticed that the weapons were different from the ordinary Tsufuru weapons. Secondly, the beams didn't hurt at all, which was strange to say at the very least. For a moment Scepice pondered about this, while beams continued to connect with both her and the still unconscious Lokor. She decided that it would be nothing. However at that very instant that she decided that it would be nothing, her arm, which had taken the brunt of the attack so far went suddenly numb. Surprised to say the least and more then a tad bit scared, Scepice no longer had the idea that beams were just nothing. She felt numbness starting to spread and decided that if she wanted to survive this thing, she had better start cutting down the numbers of the Tsufuru soon, before she too numb to move at all. Thus she started a mad dash towards the Tsufuru with the strange weapons to at least make her power felt. However the mad dash, quickly turned into a mad stumble and finally a mad slide as her legs were caught in the spreading numbness. Behind her Lokor finally regained some of his live and rose up, only to feel his legs begin to buckle as well. He did manage to fire a ball of ki, but it went wide over as aim was way off, thanks to falling backwards and failing to compensate for it.  
  
For Scepice her live seemed to be over. All she had to do now was wait for the smaller beings to come over and kill her. Perhaps she could still take a few of them with her with a good mouth blast if the numbness didn't affect that particular ability as well by then too, or so she thought. Soon enough she had to let this thought, no hope, slip away too as she could no longer rely on her senses to tell her what was going on. Slowly but surely the world grew silent and dark and thus could it happen that she would not notice what would happen to her until she woke up in a totally different world. She would not notice that her son and the two females would be buried underneath the smaller beings, blast free, only to be buried again. She would not see how the two females killed themselves in order to provide a way for her son to escape the valley which rapidly began to fill with other Tsufuru troops, thirsty for honor and revenge. And thus she would not hear the scream of her son as he fled from the battle, leaving all of his sanity behind. When she woke up it would indeed a different world, empty and save for Lokor utterly devoid of any recognizable elements.  
  
  
  
May 10, 21 BC, Planet Plant  
  
A total of twelve couples of Saiyans had been captured last year. They had been fitted with energy surpressors, reducing their powers by so much that they could just barely move around normally, turning them into perfect guinea pigs. Testing wasn't however the main reason that the twenty-four Saiyans had been captured. No, it was the power the Saiyans held that the Tsufuru really were interested in. Power that was best harvested while it was still young, in the form of baby Saiyans that could be shaped according to the Tsufuru own needs and desires and today would be the day that the first was to be collected.  
  
Lokor and Scepice who had been captured early in the morning on the first of February last year had held for six months now a small miracle in their midst. Despite all the hardships they had been through, despite the weak condition there were in and despite being captured, they were still granted a strong and healthy son. Strangely enough the torture had stopped as soon as the Tsufuru had found out that she was pregnant, their powers even had risen far enough to handle their son, when the Tsufuru were not around. In short a strange, twisted form of the life they had once known re-emerged and it was during these moments, when they could only vaguely remind a time during which they were happier. For now however that happiness would have to wait, the two slowly began to weaken, a sign that Tsufuru were on their way to them. They returned their son to his crib, before he became to powerful to handle and waited huddled together in a corner of their cell for things to come. The door slid open and two Tsufuru scientists pushing some kind of a small car entered under the escort of four Tsufuru soldiers. In the past, when the couple was free, they would've laughed if six Tsufuru would even dare to approach them. Now they didn't even move an inch, afraid of the consequences that would follow if they did. A soldier spared them a look and he laughed silently as the two Saiyans huddled even closer together in their corner, as the two scientists moved towards the crib. One of the scientists lifted the baby out of his crib and lay him in the car. A soft cry emitted from the car, soon followed by a far louder one. Paralyzed by fear and powerless to do anything to begin with, they watched as the scientists pushed a bottom and closed the car. A cry was the last sound that was emitted from the car by the baby. The sudden lack of sound was ear deavening for the two Saiyans who still were as passive as two broken Saiyans could be, but this all changed in an instant as the Tsufuru prepared to move out of the cell. During this moment courage was temporarily refound as their rage grew, it was after all the last chance to get their child back. They rose and charged, but unfortunately for them refound courage and a large amount of rage didn't mean more power. An invisible wall slammed into them as it had always had when they tried to escape. The Tsufuru laughed as they left the cell, with one of the scientist pushing the car containing the baby. The doors closed and the two Saiyans were left on their own, just as they had been the first day that they had been brought here. Their family lost, their fate broken and above all a feeling of infinite loneliness drowned them. They cried and cried; slammed against the walls and held on to each other, but nothing would get their Turgaz back. Finally after two hours the doors opened again, not to bring Turgaz back, but to take them back to the 'torture chamber'.  
  
AN: Well this was the end of what could be described as a very long secondary prologue. And I do promise to update this time within a month, hehe. Oh but no promises :P 


End file.
