Dib07: Hi all, it's me again having another go at Dragon Ball Z fanfiction. After revisiting the series I've got a better idea of what I want to write, and it's going well. As of those who are reading Nightwish, don't worry, that is still being updated too. I love both stories, though I have to say I prefer this one because of what it's going to turn into, and ahh the angst! Anyway, I spell Kakarott differently, so sorry for the confusion. Habits are hard to break once I start them. Also, Vegeta is going to be more like the English version. I like both the Japanese and the English versions, but I have a soft spot for Christopher Sabat and the way he portrays him. Also I see Frieza as female... a lot. Like, all the time, so I am going to do my best to keep him male, but... it's hard. So hard! XD So anyway, enjoy and PLEASE review!

The Mark

A Dragon Ball Z fanfiction

By Dib07

23.07.2013

Chapter One: That Night

"Blow on them and make a wish!"

"Like the dragon balls?"

"Well, kind of." Bulma answered kindly, patting her son on the shoulder. "Go on now."

They all watched as Trunks, five years old today, blew out his candles. There was a clap of hands and Goku switched on the lights. Goten reached forward to swipe a smoking candle for himself and Goku guided him back down on his seat.

"Presents!" Trunks whined, clapping his pudgy hands.

"Don't you want any cake first?" His mother replied. Goten was up again, reaching for the delicious cake with a groping hand. Goku looked on, exasperated. He lifted his eyebrows suddenly when he felt a familiar yet old ki flex not more than a few yards from him. He didn't need to glance round to know who it was. Vegeta had been standing behind Bulma to watch the celebrations from a distance: as he often did. He liked to observe and he typically tried not to look too 'involved.' When he and Goku met eye to eye, the smaller saiyan gave him a tiny inclination of his head, and then turned and headed out the back door while Trunks asked for the candles to be lit again.

Goku smiled. Bulma could handle the little ones for a while.

He made his way outside too in patient silence. It was a ruby evening, one of the brightest the saiyan had ever seen. Red ink seemed to melt into the buildings and the windows turned into sheets of gossamer fire. Though winter was approaching it was a marvellously warm evening. Vegeta had marched down to the other end of the porch. He gave Kakarott a heated glare and folded his arms. If he still had his tail, Goku believed it would have been waving irritably up and down like a lion's.

It was obvious Vegeta wanted to fight. The saiyan prince got like this from time to time, not often mind. Every hot-blooded saiyan trained until the aggression was more or less tamed. It was ironic. Normal men had testosterone to worry about. Saiyans had belligerence instead that needed 'trimming.' Sometimes there was so much of it that saiyans typically didn't have much of a sex drive and that was one of the reasons why Goku had been so surprised when Vegeta and Bulma had had a baby so soon. Saiyans never had been fertile creatures. They put all their energies into fighting rather than breeding, and most saiyan women only produced a baby male once every thirty years, and females, like the males, generally had low fertility. But since pairing up with human partners, Goku had found that having children had been... easier. And Vegeta had discovered this too. Not that it seemed to make any difference to him whether little Trunks was an accident or not. But one thing was certain. Human life was by far more relaxing for Vegeta, and ever since he had escaped the icy claws of his late Master Frieza, a human side to him had begun to grow, but it was so small it was barely there. Even when Vegeta tried to hide his feelings, Goku sensed them. A large part of the saiyan prince still wanted to retain his coldness and ferocity, but often he found himself torn in two. He wanted to be with his family, yet years of emotional abuse from Frieza had kept him away. And if having a child could not heal Vegeta, then nothing would. It made Goku angry to think how much damage one alien could do to the saiyan prince, however it was all past now, and Vegeta had to rise above it: somehow.

Somehow.

"Come on you useless dope! You and I both know that you have nothing else better to do than to wipe your son's nose."

Goku brushed some of his long black hair out of his face. "We sure are busy being dads, aren't we? Kids take up so much time and..."

"I didn't bring you out here to discuss parenting!" Vegeta snarled, and he unfolded his arms.

Goku liked the way the prince's lips curled when he got upset or agitated. He also liked the spark of life and excitement in Vegeta's eyes because he felt the same way inside. Goosebumps rose up along his bare forearms.

"Lead the way, Vegeta. You know where to go." Gosh it had been too long since he had last fight too. He could barely hold the excitement. It welled upward like smoke.

"I sure fucking do." Summoning a burst of ki, Vegeta lifted off into the air like a torpedo and the palm trees in the garden swayed, their leaves fluttering like a thousand book pages. Goku followed suit, and soon they were zooming away from the city and into the savage wilderness of the West Land where the wild creatures roamed. The valleys rose up like gnarled fists, and the trees stood in the red twilight like thoughtful sentries. They always came this way should the need to fight grow too strong. This way no one would get hurt from a stray blast, and no property damaged. In fact, the valley had slowly but surely been shaped by their spars as of late. There was a river where there was once nothing but a dry scrape of a valley, and all the trees here had been levelled, including some hills. Now a great ravine had divided the West end from the East, and Goku knew that very soon the people from the city would start complaining. After all, he and Vegeta were usually the ones that caused the thunderstorms – and the earthquakes. Goku had even once suggested to the prince that they spar further afield – perhaps to somewhere even more remote, like an island off the coast or something, but Vegeta had flatly denounced the complaint. "I know you have tendencies of brain malfunction sometimes Kakarott, but even you should know that if we move too far away from home, how will we get back in time to save our loved ones should an attack on Earth happen? Besides, these are mere farmers and naturalists complaining. They don't realize how vital it is that we make ourselves stronger. No one can understand the needs of a saiyan unless they are one themselves."

And so the decision to move further afield had been dropped just like that. Yes Vegeta was a psychopath sometimes, and yes he got angry really, really fast, but he was also acutely intelligent and coolheaded when jealously and arrogance weren't clouding his vision. And Goku valued him for those virtues.

Before they had even got to the sparring area Vegeta started it off early. Goku wasn't expecting it, and he couldn't evade the blast in time. Hot, crimson energy whammed into his side and he felt the hillside when he got plastered with rock and creeping ivy. He pulled himself away and turned to the smug prince. "Hey! No fair!"

"We aren't whelps, Kakarott. Now face up to me like a saiyan!" He extended the palm of his hand and fired a few more ki shots that sped through the air like bullets. Goku deflected them easily enough and then charged straight for Vegeta. So absorbed were they in their fighting that neither of them noticed the ruby evening draining away, and no one noticed the shy stars coming out to play. Without a moon the planet grew that bit darker than normal every night, but this didn't trouble the saiyans. Both had saiyan night vision: a condition that arose from having Oozaru blood, and though this didn't grant them crystal clear vision, their pupils opened out more, allowing in as much light as possible. And of course since they sensed ki anyway, they didn't need daylight to fight. But it helped.

A few new craters had opened up during the night, and their heavy clashes boomed across the valley like thundering juggernauts. Though none of them were going all the way, for there was no high stakes (and thus no pure adrenaline that was obtained only when a pure challenge existed), they still enjoyed it. To them there was nothing better. This was relief, therapy and entertainment all in one. Vegeta even burst into laughter at one point as he tried to launch a high-ki blast at Goku that was reminiscent to his all-favourite Galit Gun. It missed entirely of course – Goku went to deflect it, and as Goku blasted forward to strike back, Vegeta fell into hysterics – simply because he was having such a good time. Goku went to stop his attack, his guard a little thrown. Vegeta snarled, smirked and chuckled at other people's expense, but he never truly smiled or laughed from a gladness of heart. Goku would have laughed with him of course, if Vegeta had not opened his eyes and saw his rival before him, staring. So he then snapped back into attack-mode and they battled it out for another ten minutes. Ten very violent minutes. The black sky belched with every kind of incandescent colour and an onlooker many miles away might have mistaken their activities for fireworks as fire and energy raced and exploded in the sky.

Vegeta, having poured out an assault of heavy azure bombs and awaiting Goku to receive them, hovered in mid-air to admire his carnage. Below him the ground was sweltering with heat and smoke and with craters just about everywhere. Goodness knows how many trees they have levelled this time. Luckily the animals were smart enough to get well clear in time. Then, as Goku was making a return after being pulverised (even the prince could see from here that his red training shirt was smoking around the edges), he felt something hot and searing explode in his head, and his energy levels faltered incredibly. Goku was on top of him at the same moment, and unable to throw up a guard in time, Vegeta was sent spinning downward. He would have been able to see the whole planet seem to veer and spin before him had he been able to see. After Goku hit him everything went dark. He knew his eyes were open, the wind resistance was making them water, and there had been plenty of light for his saiyan eyes to see by. Yet, even if he had been able to see, his head kept hurting, and his ki seemed to spill out of him like blood escaping from a wound. He knew the impact was coming... he just needed to...

The impact never came. He fell into someone's arms. Kakarott's arms. He knew this because he was surrounded by the low class saiyan's familiar ki, and the muscles in his arms felt like rock until they relaxed. There was an umph sound coming from Kakarott from the exertion of catching him, and the low class saiyan swayed from Vegeta's sudden weight, but he held his ground.

Not checking for an instant to feel if he had actually come to ground level yet, Vegeta batted Goku away with a fist, causing the arms to drop him. He landed the last four feet.

"Vegeta? What are you..."

"Shut it, you fool! Never touch me! Ever!" He kept slapping at the air, he meant to hit Goku, but of course he had moved away to a reasonably safe distance. Then, miraculously Vegeta's vision began to come back. It was hazy at first, all mottled and cloudy as if his eyes had been flushed with water. Then the stark, grey light of night came back and he saw the dim figure of Goku standing a few feet away with his hands reaching out. Vegeta hit them away. The ugly ache in his head was fading fast too, and cool relief flooded through his system.

"Vegeta? Are you, okay?" Goku asked earnestly. "Your ki... it..."

"Oh go cry me a river." He went to stand. It probably wasn't the best idea since nothing like this had ever happened to him before, but he couldn't allow his pride to be bruised anymore than it was already. So he steadily rose up, and stood without feeling faint or weak. And his ki had stabilized too. It wasn't as strong as it was before, but it was natural to feel weary after a good spar with Kakarott.

Goku, seeing him stand without help, lowered his hands and stood quietly. Vegeta didn't say anything either. He looked around, sure there was something other than himself to blame for what just happened. But there was nothing. Just levelled, flat plains, a few scorched trees, and lots and lots of smoking craters.

"We'd better go back. Goten will want his bedtime story." Goku murmured at last, changing the subject. He knew that furthering a point that irritated Vegeta would only cause more aggravation.

"Yes." He returned, doing his best to keep the anger out of his voice. Usually he felt good after their sparring sessions and he got a good night's sleep out of them too, but tonight he felt more frustrated than he had before, and this made him rage inside even moreso. For now though he put on his poker face. He didn't want to be out here anymore. He wanted to be at home, alone, thinking things over. "Come on, then. We've spent enough time out here as it is."

They both took to the air and before long they were zooming back to Capsule Corp. Goku strayed behind a little to keep an eye on Vegeta. He could sense his ki no matter what position he was near the saiyan prince, but it was good to visually study him as well. After a few minutes of this study, Goku relaxed and his eyes fell to the great, spiralling valleys below. There was nothing to be concerned about. Whatever had happened had been a hiccup. Perhaps Vegeta had been tired as of late. He was very good at hiding stress and fatigue, and he wouldn't let it show until he collapsed, as Goku had not long ago witnessed. Apparently Vegeta had shown the same if not familiar symptoms back on Namek when they had put Goku in an isolation healing tank: Gohan had told him once that Vegeta had shown strange signs, like he had been... well, falling ill. If Vegeta rested up, he would be fine come the morning. Goku rolled his eyes. He was always so worried about his comrades and fighters that he often got a little too concerned. "I'm getting too much like my wife." He muttered to himself. Still, no matter how much he tried to soften his worry, he was still unsettled at how sudden the prince's collapse had been. If he had not been there to catch him, Vegeta would have got some nasty bruises for sure...

"Hurry it, Kakarott! You're slowing down!" Vegeta shouted from the front.

Goku smiled. He was back to his old self. He had to be fine.

Obeying Vegeta's frugal command, Goku applied more energy, and together they blasted through the air.

XXX

Later that night, Vegeta snapped awake. He wasn't sure why, or what had awoken him (sometimes a burst of unknown ki was enough to startle him from sleep no matter how deep), for the darkened room was calm and peaceful. The lilac curtains flapped and blew in the breeze – Bulma liked to keep a window open so that she could hear the wind sigh – and outside all was quiet. Vegeta sat up, not trusting the silence. Sometimes he was still surprised to find himself in Bulma's bedroom even after all these years. After particularly bad dreams that left him sweaty and shaken, he'd bolt upright, absolutely certain he was back in Frieza's ship. He'd stare around, sure to see his old chamber and hear the console readouts as Frieza informed him of his latest mission. Then his focus would sharpen, his senses would pick up nothing of what his half-dream-ridden brain was telling him and he'd gasp in relief to find himself on Earth with a sleeping woman snug beside him. But sometimes even that wasn't enough. He'd turn his head quickly; sure he had missed the alien standing coolly in a darkened corner of the room, watching him with low red-lit eyes, or the monster would be waiting outside for him, his cruel face staring in at him through the window.

Vegeta looked down at Bulma. She was on her side and sleeping soundly. One hand had sought his. He hadn't even felt the contact, and he cursed himself for allowing his guard to drop even just a little. He wrenched his hand away, then cursed at himself more for being so cold hearted. Frieza himself had made him this way: ruthless. Barbaric. Just like he had been. There was never any love in that alien. He had tried to love Vegeta as any father could love a child, but the alien did it barbarically. And now Vegeta was left with nothing but an aftertaste of black hatred.

"Will I ever be truly free of you, Frieza?" He whispered woefully in the dark. He gazed down at Bulma for a moment longer and moved the blue hair from her cheek with a deft touch of his fingers. She was so beautiful for a human female: yet to weak and so... helpless.

He removed his hand quickly as if he had just burned himself. What was he thinking? He was a pure blooded warrior. Warriors did not feel like the humans did. Or love. Their passion was to only get stronger. Frieza had been obsessed with just the same desire.

And look where it had got him.

After sitting up for some time, listening to the night and the gentle breathing of his partner, Vegeta swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He approached the full length mirror that hung on the wall by the cabinet. Even in the dark his saiyan vision could still perceive what stood before him in that mirror, and he didn't like it. What he saw was a thing reeking of fear and self-loathing. This was not who he was. When he first touched-down on Earth alongside Nappa, the man who helped take care of him when he was smaller, he had been filled with life, determination... and hunger. And though Frieza had long since died, Vegeta felt chained, even now. The man standing small in the mirror confirmed it. But instead of slamming a fist into that trembling figure with the dark, staring eyes in a gaunt face, he turned sharply away on his heels and addressed the window. The curtains licked up his arms from the wind, and as he looked out, he felt calmer. More in control.

"What's happening to me, father?" He asked, not sure himself exactly which father he was referring to.

But the cold night did not answer him.

It never did.