Brothers

Radditz woke up hours before the sun, as he had for many months now. Where had the time gone? He had been back for nearly eight months already. It seemed like just the other day, he was sitting in Hell, bored, angry and unable to escape. Now, he was here........alive........

Yet, when he tried to think of a time he hadn't lived in this little capsule house, a time he had to fight and kill to get by. When he tried to think of a time before he had met Dayna, he felt like it was hundreds of miles........ hundreds of years away. It was a different person, that Radditz, who had arrived on Earth all that time ago. He didn't WANT to kill, now, not in cold blood. That realization alone almost scared him. Had he lost his will to fight? No, he still loved that. He had lost his will to murder.

Perhaps it was the influence around him. Kakarot, his sons......all of Kakarot's friends......even Prince Vegita (King Vegita, he reminded himself) seemed content with mere sparring. Maybe it was Dayna, with her soft nature and lacking strength. Or, in all doubt, perhaps he had even gone soft. This thought he refused to think of. He was a Saiyan, as he constantly reminded himself, he was not soft.

He grunted as he slipped out of bed, and went to get on his green gi. He hurried to dress, wanting to be outside when the morning was still considered night. He didn't need much sleep, and he didn't like staying in bed when he was awake. He would go for a run, as he enjoyed doing at a time that was still considered night. The cool wind running over his body as he moved as only a Saiyan could, calming his nerves and taking his mind off of things. He pulled his hair back in the pony-tail he had become accustomed to.

As he walked through the main part of the house, he noticed Turles and Nappa were asleep in front of the television, as they always were at this time. Radditz had even begun to worry about how much time they wasted infront of that thing, and decided to ask someone, perhaps Kakarot, about a way to get them out of the house and away from that horrid box! His fellow Saiyans were getting too lazy. Radditz was the only one among them that had taken up exercizing to keep in shape. He had started running eighty miles a day, all before the sun was up. It left him invigorated, and ready to start the day. Plus, he felt his power level rising as well.

He exited the capsule house, and was immidiatly greeted by a cool night breeze, encouraging him to leave the stuffy little cell and on to the dew covered grass. Only then did he notice he had forgotten to put his shoes on. He didn't bother going back in to get them, as the crisp, cool dew on his bare feet made the night seem even better. Everything seemed so perfect.

There was little light, though there were no clouds, but the lack of light ment little to Radditz. His Saiyan eyes could see just fine, if not more acutely without the distraction too much reflected light. He imagined fighting at night would be fun.

He looked up at the sky, and felt himself marvel at the billions of stars above him. He felt so insignifigant. The existance of the enitre Saiyan race, from the first germ climbing on a rock that floated aimlessly through space, up to the point that Radditz stood now on this grassy yard, was not even a bat of an eye to this ageless, ever growing universe. It was astrounding.

Then Radditz looked at something else. The moon. It wasn't full, but was close. Perhapse just mere days away. The moon had been full before, but none of the Saiyans had transformed since resurection. They had been warned early on by Kakarot, who usedhis rare I'm-not-joking voice, that if they transformed and started causing a ruckus, not only would he cut off their tails, but he would take their lives. He obvously ment it, as he had already prooved his love and loyalty to this planet's inhabitants.

Radditz had begun to wander from the Son house's yard. He was now in a mostly treeless aria, with only a few spare shrubs sprouting here and there. He suddenly didn't want to run. He just wanted to walk through the scenery, and look. He didn't now what he wanted to look at, for he had never admired a bright flower, or misty waterfall. He just knew he wanted to see what this forest had, and that didn't include edible animals.

He jerked for a second. He felt something.....strange. He had started to learn to sence chi, but it was harder than he imagined. This chi he felt, for it was chi, was familiar. So familiar, he knew who it was the instant he felt it.

It was Kakarot. Radditz looked around, trying to see his brother. He wasn't in the house......there. Not far off, by a bubbling little spring, lay Kakarot. He was just laying on his back, arms cupped under his head, staring at the sky.

Radditz expected him to look up and say something, but he didn't. Radditz began to wonder why, when he noticed something else.

Without knowing it, Radditz had lowered his chi. He had been so relaxed, so calm, his chi had gone down to near invisibility! It was a strange thing to feel, for one who had never consciously smothered their chi before. Yet, it felt right.

Radditz walked towards Kakarot, letting the grass under his feet rustle so Kakarot would know he was being approached.

"Hello, Radditz....," Kakarot said without turning his gaze from the stary sky.

"What are you doing here?" Radditz asked, looking to the heavens in an attempt to see what the other Saiyan was looking at.

"Just watching the sky.....," the reply came out peacefull, almost breathy. Like making too much sound would shatter the serene black sky and reduce it to the pink dust of sunrise. Slowly, Kakarot turned his gaze from the sky and looked into Radditz's face.

Radditz found himself in wonder about Kakarot's appearance. In so many ways he was like his father. Strong, bold features that matched their personalities. Nearly identical. But somewhere deep in those ebony Saiyan eyes, there was something so drastically different, the mirror reflection of Bardock was shattered. Those eyes, so wide and curious, held no devious thought. They showed no malice, or want. They were peacful.....serene as the sky.

"And you?" Kakarot asked after a moment, turning his eyes to watch the small stream bubble by, "What are you doing out so late.....or early. It's morning, now, isn't it."

"I just want to.....exercize. Can't sleep."

"Yeah....." Kakarot looked back up at the sky, following the course of a shooting star as it flew through the heavens to vanish in the horizon, "When did you get up?"

"A little bit ago," Radditz said, allowing his eyes to also roam the stars. They were so bright, they stood out in stark contrast to the black vaccum around them.

"Huhn.....I couldn't sleep. I've been tossing all night, but I just had to get out of the house......I didn't want to desturb Chichi," Kakarot looked back up at the sky and asked, "Amazing isn't it?" Radditz grunted.

Kakarot thought this ment Radditz didn't understand and started talking again, "I may be strong.....but compaired to that," he gestured to the sky, "I am nothing. I could blow up the entire galaxy, but the nigth sky will continue on to the end of time and more.....I feel so small, but not in a bad way. Just like I'm just a small piece of something so big I couldn't fathom it......."

Radditz smiled within himself, thinking to how he had thought the same thing only moments before. Perhaps they were closer than Radditz had originally thought.

"Lots of times before," Kakarot spoke in a way that made him seem like he wasn't aware Radditz was even there to hear him, "I looked at the sky and thought. I thought back to all of my fond memories here on Earth. I would think back to my oldest memory of Grampa holding me on his knee, or telling me stories.....but I don't remember anything before that."

Radditz sat down in the wet, cold grass. Kakarot closed his eyes tightly, squeezing them shut, "And sometimes, I would close my eyes and try to make up a past. Where I came from, who my parents were.....when I found out WHAT parents were...heh....but none of them fit. I had never met anyone before who had a tail like I did......."

Radditz winced. It stung to even think of losing a tail.....

"Tell me about my parents."

Kakarot's question caught Radditz off guard. Radditz hadn't really let himself think of his parents before, not since Vegita-sie's destruction nor before. He thought for a second before answering.

"I...don't remember out mother very well......." Radditz didn't really want to talk about THEM, but the questioning look on Kakarot'z face was pleading, "She died on Vegita-sei with the rest, but we were never really close. I don't think we ever really talked.....I don't even know if I even called her mother."

Goku's face showed no emotion to his words, which surprised Radditz, for he had considered his little brother to be something of an sentimental.

"Our father.....was a wild man. He was the best warrior you could ever find, without a doubt......but near the end, he went insane. I don't know much about it, but I heard he just went mad and ran off. No one knows what happened to him. Died, probably, just another nameless Saiyan.......Why are you asking all this?"

"I wonder if he would react to me the way all the other Saiyans I first met did......." Kakarot mumbled, looking off into nothingness, deep in his oun private thoughts.

"Huhn?" Radditz questioned.

"My.....our...father. I know about as much about him as I did before I found out I was a Saiyan,"

"Why would it matter? He's dead."

"Are you really that cold? I'm just curious as to whether he would be proud of me.......the way I'm proud of Gohan and Goten," Kakarot's features softened when he mentioned his children.

"At first..........I think he would be horrified. I'm not going to lie about that," Radditz said, thinking carefully about what his father's reaction would be to Kakarot's unique way of life, "But I think that once he found out all you've done, and how strong you are........"

"You mean it?" Kakarot asked, his face that of a child being told his papa loves him.

"I don't lie about this kind of stuff, Kakarot. I have no reason to........He would be PUFFED with pride at how his son turned out. Especially at how you make up all those tecniques for winning fights."

"Why would he be proud of that? There's nothing really to coming up with moves."

"Coming up with them, yes. But few people I know can make those moves reality. I witnessed with my oun eyes how you came up with absorbing chi.......I want to someday learn how to do it myself. You still haven't named that attack yet, you do realize."

"Name it?" Kakarot thought for an instant, "I would probably call it something simple. I'm thinking 'Kyushu suru'."

"Oh, THAT'S original," Radditz somehow softened his tone, "But I suppose it does work well enough."

Just then, Kakarot's stomach rumbled. He hunched over and hugged his lower abdomine and looked up and playfully smiled at Radditz, "Guess all this talking has worked up my appetite.....care to do a little hunting, oh older brother?"

Radditz smiled. Not his usual smug, cocky smile he used when around other people. This was a genuine smile of pride. He couldn't truthfully deny that he had looked into Kakarot's crib when he was a baby and tried to coax the infant to call him 'brother.' Hearing that now seemed to make everything so out of place, but comfortably so.

"Hey, I'm not that old!" Radditz kidded as he and Kakarot climbed to their feet and stretched their muscles, "Considering all the time I've been dead, we should be about even! I haven't aged a DAY in the past.....how many years now?"

"Ha ha ha, I've been dead my fair share of years, too!" Kakarot continued the small joke, "So I think I still got a good few years on you!"

"Yeah right," Radditz smiled broadly in the dark as he and Kakarot lifted into the air to find some prey, "You're OLD! I'll have to call you my big little brother!"

And the two Saiyans flew off into the darkness, still bickering in a way only siblings could...........

The End