The New Age Empire v2: Book 2

~Chapter 8: To Agalar Or Not To Agalar. That is the Question.~

"I don't think we should go to someplace like that!" Goten said once they were once again on the ship. "It sounds bad."

"That's only the beginning of it," Taura said so softly they could barely hear him. Even Kallen looked interested at his words.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Jas is involved with this story. It's part of the reason why he was convicted of mass murder." Goten's eyes grew wide. "In space there are things called spacial rifts above certain planets. Through these rifts come restless, oftentimes evil, spirits onto the planet to feast on the souls of the living. It was Jas' job to send these spirts back to the afterlife. He was a Death Chaser."

"I've never heard of this," Kallen said with a frown. "Why is that?"

"The Death Chasers preferred not to be known by society. They were a secret organization. All the people of the planets knew was that sometimes people went out after dark and never came back.

"On our home planet, Tale, there is a great rift above the Kriftin Sea. Around the middle of last year Jas and a team of twelve other Death Chasers were called to it because the spirts were coming through. They did it at irregular intervals, you know. We had no way of knowing when they were going to come out again."

"Why was he in prison if he did that for everyone?" Goten asked. "I don't understand."

Taura sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "He was always my friend, ever since we were children. We played together, we went to school together, we even confided in each other. During his battle at the Rift, a Spirit got to him and permanently damaged his soul. If you have no soul, your body is nothing but an empty vessel. Jas hasn't been the same since.

"His parents tried to care for him but something had awakened deep inside of him causing my friend to hunger for the blood of the kill. Three months ago he began to prey on innocent people, mercilessly butchering them until the bodies were nearly unidentifiable. A few weeks after that he was apprehended by the police." He placed his helmet once again on his head and took his time securing everything. His already low voice was muffled considerably and they had a hard time hearing him. "I know that it is the Spirits fault for ruining my friend and I come with you to find a cure. I can't allow him to remain this way. I just can't!"

"I understand," Kallen said quietly. "We all have our own personal reasons for this journey."

"The reason I have told you all of this," he called as the door seperating the main part of the ship and the air lock lowered shut, "is because Agalar has a spacial rift. You may need our help."

Vegeta, thinking hard about what he said, manually had the oxygen enriched air forced back inside the ship before opening the other door. Once finished, he strode down to the bridge and saw Taura safely make it back to his own ship.

"We should continue on," he said once he had sat down once again in his chair. "Not for us but for Taura. Maybe there is something out there that can help him."

"He should have asked Grynth about it!" Kallen said. "He would have helped."

"That's his business." he told her. "Not ours. If he didn't want to ask, he didn't want to ask. So," he changed the subject, "shall I program in the coordinates or do we go on back home?"

"Of course we're going forward!" Kallen said firmly. "There is just no other choice."

As Vegeta programmed the coordinates into the computer, he questioned Don on just how long the trip would take.

"ETA is three days. That is if you use the hyperdrive. ETA without is twice as long."

"Three days?" Goten moaned. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I was noticing before your combat skills," Kallen said casually. "Can you, or both of you, train me to become better? You can never have enough training."

"No problem!" Vegeta said cheerfully. "Don, is there a station or a planet somewhere between here and Agalar? We're runnin' low on supplies." He glanced at Goten. "The Bottomless Son Pit hasn't been active that much but still..."

"There are around fifty. Some are in," he paused briefly as if carefully choosing his next words, "enemy territory."

This raised eyebrows in all three of them. "Enemy as in the man who wanted the ring?" he asked.

"Yes. They are the Syth; professional thieves. That was their leader himself, Ankan. He does not come from their main hide-out for silly reasons."

"You seem to know much," Kallen said softly. "How did you find this out?"

Don paused again, but this time it was embarrassed. As embarrassed as he ever got anyway. "I, um, breached their security firewalls and 'borrowed' a bit of information."

"In plain terms you hacked into the system and stole the info." Vegeta nodded. "Gotcha."

" 'Hacked' is such an ugly word," the A.I. said, his embarrassment growing deeper. "I thought that we would need this later on. I was right."

"But Donovan," Kallen said in her best mothering tone, "it was still not a nice thing to do. The next time you see that computer, you should apologize."

Don's voice lowered in mock shame and Vegeta and Goten hid their snickers. "Yes, mother."

"Good boy." She stood and stretched. "Well, I'm ready for training guys. Don't go easy on me because I'm not a saiyan."

Vegeta and Goten both jumped to their feet, eager to do something other than eat, sleep, and sit. Before V.J. had exited the bridge, he asked Don to do something else for him.

"When we reach a place that's not under Ankan's control, can you began the docking procedure and contact us in the training room?

"Will do, Vegeta. Have fun."

He grinned. "I will."

***

"What's the damn difference?" Vegeta asked Bulma irritably early the next day. She continued to hold up two different color swatches.

"One is Rose and the other is Blush."

"They're both pink! I hate pink!"

She smirked at him. "You liked that pink Bad Man shirt I gave you."

"Did you see me with any other clothes to wear? For future reference, yellow *does not* match pink." He flipped through the color swatchs quickly looking for a suitable shade for a ball that he really didn't want to go to. Stopping on one page that was covered completely in various shades of blue, he randomly picked one.

"Robin's Egg?" she said. "You like pale blues?"

"Um," he looked for a way to end that discussion quickly, "of course I do. Robin's Egg and white. Those are the colors. Now have ChiChi, Mia, or some other female help you with the rest."

Gathering up her things, she snorted. "I'll ask ChiChi but getting Mia to do this is like getting Son-kun to use table manners. It's not possible. Besides, she's not here. There's an art show at school and she went up there with Pan, Jakina, and Magori to help. Bra's doing her homework and Trunks is finally doing his job."

"What did you bribe him with?" Vegeta asked with amusement.

"Front row concert tickets. They cost me two-hundred eighty-eight thousand yen."

"The boy has good sight. He could have sat in the back row."

"He also wouldn't be at Capsule Corp. today doing paperwork either. I think he misses Goten. You know they've never been apart for any length of time before. You had to threaten Goten with bodily harm to get him to go home when he was a child." Before she exited the living room, she smiled at her mate. Vegeta knew instantly that he wasn't going to like what she was going to say next. "You and I are supposed to go to the art show in thirty minutes. Make sure you're ready."

"But all those people!" he groaned and made his way over to her. Ningen were mobsters. He frantically tried to think up an excuse as to why he couldn't come. "Who will guard the palace while we're not here?"

"Son-kun," she answered promptly. "He doesn't have any children that young, remember? *You*," she poked him in the chest, "do."

"But he has an granddaughter that age..." Then he sighed. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?" He didn't want to disappoint his youngest but he really didn't want to have to deal with all those people...

"Of course not. Be ready and no spandex. We're going as Jackie-chan's parents, not the impressive leaders of humanity."

"Sure, onna. Whatever you say."

"My name is-!"

"Bulma," he finished. "I know, I know."

***

Walking around the gymnasium glancing at children's scribbles was not want he wanted to be doing with his day. The kindergarten through third graders were the worst of all although some showed future promise. Their proud parents oohed and awed over their art work even as they tried to figure out what it was supposed to be exactly. He stopped at the fourth grade class and quickly sought out Jakina.

"Papa! Papa!" she jumped up and down in excitement. "Come see my work!"

Moving to stand beside her and inwardly cringing at what he would say when she asked him what he thought, he looked at her picture and instantly noticed that it was great. She had drawn a waterfall with fairies playing in the pool at the bottom. It was beyond great in his opinion, it was perfect. His little Jackie-chan had real talent.

"How long did this take you?" he asked while wondering how come he didn't notice she could draw before.

"A week. I wanted it to be perfect. Do you like it?"

Bending down to her level and showing rare affection in public, he hugged her. "I think it's wonderful."

"The juding for each class is later. Do you think I'll win?"

He smiled at her as best that he could. "Of course you will. If you don't, they'll have an angry king to deal with."

"Papa!"

He sighed. "I know, I know. That's not right." As he stood he heard Pan's loud voice yelling at him. Her class was next to Jakina's.

"Vegeta-ojisan! Come see mine now!"

Jakina giggled and shoed him away. "You better go. Pan-chan's not very patient. Her sculpture is good too. Are you going to see Magori's picture?"

"Of course I am. He's part of the," he supressed a flinch at using the word, "family now too, isn't he?"

"You're getting better Papa." She said seriously as she looked up at him. "Keep up the good work. I'll tell Mama that you said something nice about my picture. She'll be happy too."

Vegeta wondered what they talked about when he wasn't around. Did she tell Bulma that he was nicer to everyone? Surely everyone could see that he was. But just the thought of them discussing his behavior when he wasn't around irked him.

"What did Pan sculpt?" he asked his daughter. He didn't want to make her cry by not knowing what it was. Pan had an astonishing set of lungs.

Her eyes sparkled as she fought to keep a smile from her face. "You'll see."

Vegeta walked away partially dreading what was to come. What did Jakina mean by 'You'll see?'. He entered the second row of fifth-grade projects and spotted Pan arguing with a blond boy.

"Don't insult my sculpture! It took me forever!"

The boy stuck out his tongue at her and pointed to his own project. "At least my family is worth sculpting." He stopped their argument just as Pan had her hands clenched in the little boy's clothing and was raising him a few inches from the floor.

"Your mother would kill you, brat." he said quietly. It was all she needed to hear. Pan had gotten in trouble for fighting more times than he could remember. Videl would lecture first and then wonder if she was just a bad parent. Gohan said that was exactly what his own mother would do. Hell, she *still* did it. The small girl released him but not before pushing him roughly away.

"I hate that boy," she muttered. "As if my ojiichan is a bad person."

That made the king blink and turn toward her project. It was what he had been expecting, there was a perfect replica of Goku's head on a pedestal. She had painted it realistically and even had a small, golden plaque in front of it. Pan really did love her grandfather.

"So, Veggie-ojisan," she asked with a grin. "is this absolutely magnificent or what?"

He remained silent until he found the perfect words to say. "It's great. For Kakarott's head anyway."

He grin grew even wider. "I knew you would say that. Judging's in five minutes. Go see Magori's now."

"Are you going to stay out of trouble?" he questioned her.

With a scowl, she replied, "Kaasan and Tousan's headin' over here soon and so is Mia-obasan."

"Mia would let you kill that boy and think nothing of it."

Pan nodded. "That's why I love her."

Walking down the center of the gym proved harder than he thought. With all those small children and doting parents running around, you couldn't scratch your nose without elbowing someone. Before he was once again near the second-graders, he heard a voice that instantly made his anger rise and a vaguely red haze cloud his vision.

"So Vegeta-oui is taking time out of his all-too-busy schedule to attend elementary school functions, eh?"

Without turning, he knew who the words belonged to; the Lord of Shadows.

Like all leaders Vegeta had a bit of opposition. Actually, bit was a major understatement. This dark-haired, blue-eyed ladies man had gathered people together who despised him from all corners of the world and formed a group known as the Shadow Stalkers in polite conversation. Their mission was simple: dethrone the evil doer and put someone of their own choosing in his place. The way they came about this was to chase every single rumor and hunt down every single dark moment in his life.

Why they hated him varied among everyone at the palace. ChiChi said it's because of who he was. That was half of the reason. He had, of course, originally come to Chikyuu intending on killing as many ningen as he could. The other half is because of where he had come from. A place outside of Chikyuu.

Space travel was a foreign concept to these people. They could not begin to fathom the things that existed out in space. He is different therefore he is wrong. That was the Shadow Stalkers' way of thinking.

Vegeta's very being had been created by hatred. It had been raised by battle and comforted by blood. The darkness was a part of who he was and nothing anyone could do or say would ever change that. The people of Chikyuu were lucky, they had but a glimpse into Vegeta's dark world. Very few had experienced everything and the ones who had survived it were forever altered.

The newly crowned King of Chikyuu turned slowly to face his enemy. He did not incinerate him with ki on the spot as he would have done merely months ago nor did he curse at him with annoyance. A calm, slightly amused smile slid over his face and inwardly he laughed. Vegeta found humor in the entire confrontation. He, the second strongest warrior in the entire universe, faced a lowly ningen and was not compelled to kill him instantly. The Lord of Shadows was completely unaware of just how fortunate he was and that he owed his life to a small, nine-year-old girl by the name of Jakina Briefs. So, he laughed silently and found words to say to the treasonous lord before him.

"My daughter had a drawing that she wanted me to see," he said simply. "I came."

His blue eyes became small shards of ice and his mouth turned up in derision. He remembered that attack oh so long ago when Son Gohan was but a child, when he sought to become immortal. "I would think small things like family didn't concern... you." Around them all had grown silent as if they were waiting for Vegeta to execute the final blow. For once, Vegeta did not wish to kill. He felt it was better if the Lord of Shadows stayed alive for now even though he wouldn't understand the humor of it.

"That merely proves how little you know about me." He drew himself up and fixed that still faintly amused, dark stare onto the blue crystal that was the Lord's. "While you are here speaking with me, where is your family? Are you abandoning them at this very moment to exchange thinly disguised insults? Or are they that unimportant to you?"

As he left the other man fuming wordlessly, his small smile became a self-satisfied smirk. Those books on politics really knew their stuff. Score: Vegeta-oui one, Lord of Shadows zero.