The History of Tarble

Saiyans gained conscious awareness far faster than human children, and some remembered as far back as the day after their birth. Such early memories were rather like those from the untrained Oozaru state, however – vague, blurry, and easily lost if not held onto.

So really, Tarble thinks of his first memories starting around two or three, memories of a man with brown-tinted hair shaped like a flame, glaring at him, and a boy with pure black hair in the same shape, bangs falling in his eyes. The boy seems less angry, more puzzled. Tarble learns that the man is called 'Father' and the boy 'Brother,' and both are 'Vegeta.' He loses them both before this stops being confusing. He does know that Brother is very strong and very brave, and Father wants him to be like Brother, and Father seems pleased when Brother is around, in a way he never is with Tarble, so he does his best to emulate Brother.

His best is not good enough, and whispers have started about 'away' when Brother vanishes. He's sad when that happens, and does the thing that always makes Father mad, the thing where water comes out of his eyes. Tarble thinks it must mean something is wrong with him, because he's never seen anyone else do it, and that's why Father doesn't like it – he doesn't like to be reminded how flawed his second son is.

Things change a little after Brother vanishes. Father begins to oversee Tarble's training, and he never smiles anymore, not at all.

In fact, everyone smiles less now. Everyone seems angrier, more hostile. Tarble tries to do better at his fighting lessons, but he's not very good at them, his coordination isn't good and as for his power levels, well… he's not sure what a 'jewel' is, but it's probably not good, because it gets muttered in connotation with his name a lot. And there's another name on everyone's lips now, too – Frieza. It's murmured in corners and shadows, with suspicious, bitter looks. Frieza. Frieza.

Father grows angrier and angrier. Tarble is too young to understand at the time, but later he learns it is a rage fueled by loss and despair. What he does understand is the day Father comes to his room and holds him for the last time. Tarble doesn't know it's the last time, of course, only that Father seems at peace for once and that he can count the number of times Father has been this gentle with him on one hand. Father doesn't say anything, just holds him for a short while, then leaves.

Sometime not long after that, Father dies. Tarble doesn't entirely understand what's happening at the time, but he thinks it's happened once before, when the woman called 'Mother' left and never came back. It hurts, a pain in his chest that won't go away, a connection broken that he hadn't known he had. It hurts and it makes his eyes leak and his breathing go funny.

He's alone in his room when this happens, and he still doesn't have his breathing back to normal when the man comes. Tarble's never seen this man before – he's tall and fierce-looking, and he grabs Tarble, telling him to be quiet, but the man doesn't understand that Father is gone, and is never coming back, and it hurts. The man growls and looks over his shoulder, then glares at Tarble.

"You're gonna make me do it, aren't you, brat?" he growls, and Tarble doesn't understand but the man seems to be talking more to himself anyway, "If that's what it takes, fine! But don't make me regret this!"

And Tarble finds himself pressed against the man's chest, armor smooth against his cheek, and before Tarble can even be confused the man begins to make a rumbling noise. It's not a growl, it's not like anything Tarble remembers hearing before, but it sounds warm and safe, and it eases the pain enough that he can stop leaking.

He sits quietly in the man's arms after that, even when the rumbling stops. The man takes him to a very small ship and leaves him there, telling him to stay quiet, and Tarble sits and waits, curled up in a ball on the padded chair by the controls.

It feels like the man is gone forever, though later he learns it can't have been all that long, but then the man's back, a smirk on his features, and he gets into the ship as well and they take off.

It's his first time in space and, even though he still hurts, Tarble eagerly watches out the viewscreen with the man, who flies the ship a short-ish distance away from the planet and sets it to hover there, facing Vegetasei. And that's how Tarble sees his home planet for the first and last time, and how he becomes one of the unlucky ones to actually see the planet go.

He wants to scream when it happens, but he can't, just watch as his home crumbles as dozens of points of light blast away from it. Later he learns that those points were actually attack pods and ships, carrying members of the Resistance that had been on-planet, who had waited until the last possible minute to leave and give cover to Bardock as he stole the last surviving member of the Royal House of Vegetasei, and not as many make it as they'd planned. Right now, though, Tarble doesn't know this – how could he know? – but the man has picked him up and started rumbling again, so he's starting to feel better, only then the man jolts and drops him, clutching high on one shoulder near his neck. It shocks Tarble, and he stares at the man, eyes wide and horrified.

"Gine…" the man breathes, then lunges forward, reaching over the controls to plant his other hand on the viewscreen and he screams the name again before slumping down to the floor, next to Tarble, shoulders shaking. "Gine…" he whispers, voice ragged, hand returning to that spot on his shoulder.

Tarble doesn't understand what's going on exactly, but he thinks maybe this man has just lost someone, too. More importantly, he doesn't want to be alone, so he goes to the man and curls up beside him. To his surprise, the man picks him up and holds him close, and Tarble's absolutely stunned to see that the man's eyes are leaking like his own do sometimes. The man snorts when he sees Tarble's surprised expression.

"Yeah, go ahead and stare, brat. You might be the only one left who's seen stone-cold Bardock cry." The man – Bardock? – turns to look at the stars they're passing (Tarble hadn't realised they were moving again), "Don't think there's a single person out there who would blame me for it right now, though – we've just lost almost everything, brat." His face goes grim at this, but then he smirks down at Tarble, "Guess there's nothing for it but to make the bastards who did this to us pay."

OoOoOoOoO

They fly for several sleep cycles, until they reach a small planet. Bardock's put on the red bandana that will become his trademark by this point, and he's made sure Tarble has had enough to eat, and he doesn't complain when Tarble leans on him or goes to sleep on his chest, so Tarble's decided he's probably okay.

And there are other saiyans on the planet, other survivors, and more come over the next few months, including one little survivor who's younger than Tarble, younger but stronger (and Tarble's used to everyone being stronger than him, but it's still a little annoying that he's outdone by even a baby). Everyone else in the Resistance is at least through their first spurt, though, so Tarble ends up spending a lot of time with little Broly anyway while the adults plan, and the littler boy ends up becoming his closest friend, willing to follow his lead even though Tarble's so much weaker than him. And he likes that he can get Broly to stop crying when no one else can (not that anyone else seems willing to get close enough to try half the time, anyway).

The Resistance survives its fiery birth and goes on to steal or trade for better ships and supplies, and gets its feet under it, and then they begin the long process of making the Colds pay for what they've done, like Bardock said they would. Tarble grows up on the flagship, with Bardock and Broly and quite a few others, including Broly's father, Paragus, and Bardock's friends, Toma and Celipa. Tarble doesn't grow up strong – not for a saiyan – but he does grow up smart, and quick, and brave, and he finds his place at the negotiation tables, where his weakness and small stature become an advantage, because he's a less threatening presence in comparison to the rest of his race. He learns every inch of the ship that is his home, and breaks most of them (with Broly's help). He becomes less a prince, more of a mascot (though he was never much of a prince in the first place), and he gets into so much trouble that "Dammit, Tarble" practically becomes the battle cry of this segment of the Resistance. He goes through his first spurt, and wonders if Father would have been happier with him, if he'd seen what Tarble is becoming, what he's making himself into – someone who will be able to help guide his people through a universe their past actions have made hostile towards them, someone who maybe, one day, they'll follow.

And, when he is almost eighteen, he goes to an out-of-the-way little planet where Bardock's sons have ended up because Broly is hitting his first spurt… and Tarble finds out why Brother's vanishing didn't hurt like Father's did.

OoOoOoOoO

I really like writing in this style. Like, really like it. It fits my brain very well.

And it was fun writing this, looking at the events of that day from the perspective of someone so young and who really had no clue what was going on. I've had a lot of fun with Tarble in this series – my precious little Jewel of a prince/diplomat – and I'm going to have more before it's over. He grew up a lot feistier this time around, thanks to being around other saiyans so much. He's also pretty close with Bardock – Bardock's one of the first people to ever really treat him gently or with much obvious affection, not to mention the first person to ever purr to him, and Tarble bonded. Bardock, on the other hand, realized a few crucial days too late that he'd acquired a space limpet as a result of his actions. And, to be honest, having Tarble around did help ease the sting of Raditz and Kakarrot's absence to a more tolerable level at times.

Bardock didn't exactly know King Vegeta was already dead when he stole Tarble, this was all actually a back-up plan – he fully expected King Vegeta and the royal guard to take Frieza down. But, you know, redundancy and all. He figured he'd worry about what an ugly word 'treason' is when it was actually being thrown at him. And, hey, turned out he didn't have to worry about it after all, because King Vegeta got murdered and Vegetasei got blown up! …um, yay? Bardock's an excellent planner in this, and pretty damn smart, but things don't always go his way.

Also, next week we're heading back to Earth! Woo!