For the saiyan race, the previous day in Age 734, meant nothing. It was just another day in their business of conquering and selling planets. Their cogs never stop or orientate even as a new one is plucked from the trash to replace a faulty one. Even if that spot were empty the system would run; smoothly in fact.
For a handful of rejects that day was the beginning of the end.
***
After the battle Royal, in the rejection bases infirmary.
"Hey, you should rest. This was your first combat experience aside from assessment, isn't it?" Warned a concerned Būdo.
The boy stumbling out of his bed wasn't having it. "I'll return after I check on Zukki. Didn't get to go today" he excuses while clinging onto his daily ritual. At a certain point the habit became just as important as the context.
"That girl wasn't a part of the battle royal, she was exempt" the purple alien tried to explain. Her hands were hesitant to stop the boy, merely stuck at words to block him. Flashes of her colleagues' warning entered her mind.
Yet the child before her was just as vulnerable as he looks.
"Er..fine, young one. Just promise to stay here and I will go check on her."
"Promise?" Through his haze he questioned. The word lost on him, it's meaning foreign to his mental database.
"Yes, oh" her lips part in realization. "A promise, a deal..an exchange. People who keep promises are good" she flatly says. The bluntness of this lesson makes a bead of sweat fall down her temple before laughing out. Her sweet, yet false, laughter deflected the awkwardness in her tone.
The boy nodded his head like he understood what she was talking about. The definitive "good" had him passed considering and already sitting on the bed.
"If she's hurt like last time.." he starts
"I'll bring her back here" she finishes. "Just who do you think I am. The doctor title isn't just for show."
Not that 456 could understand how important the role of doctor is. Vaguely it's at the same level as cafeteria lady.
As the room spun he laid back down, back of his head resting on the pillow.
"Promise.." he mutters out loud like testing the word. His eyes closed before he had the power to resist.
Būdo exhaled a sigh of relief before fulfilling her side of the promise. Taking one look at her precious student too. She had tended to their wounds. Again marveling at how deeper wounds were like surface level wounds by the time she had the chance to clean them up.
***
Būdo had gotten a full explanation of where Zukki had been passed out prior. The back yard of the rejection base, where Zukki frequently spent all her time. Fighting an adult from off base on a daily basis.
Once the purple alien exited the building she squinted her eyes. Focusing on the darkness surrounding the gravelly surface. Eventually she caught a bump in the ground. A small limp body.
Būdo rushed over right away. Her scooter relayed information. When she crouches down a bruised bloody female child lay there. Her body peppered with purplish blue spots all over. Once acknowledged her arm spasms and hand grips rocks.
Būdo immediately pulls out a syringe. Struggling for a lot longer to find and penetrate a vein that she wanted to admit. Injecting the girl with a large sedative to be safe before carrying her back. The halls were silent as she returned and so was the infirmary.
Fixing up Zukki was rather uneventful, however the three of them were together again. The three newest addictions to the rejection base. Each occupying one of the only three beds in the cheap space.
***
One man had hunched over. Slowly over the course of the battle Royal since he injected himself, number 1 had inched his body to a more comfortable position. Ending up in the fetal position. His eyes scanned the battlefield every chance he got. Even from his low eye position the results had become obvious.
Still as one of his own peers found herself in the final four he wanted to act.
1 didn't act. He laid there as a reject got dragged away. Only standing up once the lights turned off one after another.
Number 1 moved over to the fence surrounding the base. The direction where the reject had been taken off. Gripping the fence he gritted his teeth. A grimace painting his expression. The reject marked as the first stood there for a long while before returning to his room.
One by one the rest of the rejects lifted their bodies and licked their wounds. By the start of the next day each and every one of them would have returned to their bed. All aside from one.
The last person to remain in the bloodied pink gravel was someone new. A man with skin leaning on the olive side of color and a Mohawk so distinct you could pick him out of a crowd. As he rose to his feet he was gobsmacked at his own failure. His first thought was to reject this reality.
He believed he could just leave. Climb the fense–or rather jump over it, when he noted the barbed wire. So he did that.
What greeted him was one of the guards in charge of watching the perimeter. The confrontation should have been fierce, but Mohawk was already injured and exhausted from battle.
He found himself waking up in the yard once again. This time his chest, the armor piece, had 336 carved into it.
***
A Yellow alien had been regularly circling a certain nursing ward. Checking each infant was his job. He was in charge of the data, but his tracks were getting sloppy.
The alien was a banana, a gangly lizard-like fellow with an anxious demeanor. He has already long since relayed the information he gathered, along with gradually delaying the saiyan's resurgence. "One baby at a time" he had said to himself long ago.
Banana had been taking a deep breath when he noticed a reflection in the nursing. A moment later he was coughing something up. A thick liquid escaped his lips. His eyes went hazy as he looked down.
A hand had punctured through his chest. The stumble not even registering as it was wrenched back. The capsule and floor was dripping with that thick liquid now.
Banana realizes it's his own blood as a sick laugh fills his fading hearing. It had finally happened. Murdered by the damned monkeys.
There was a flash of light and the alien had vanished from the universe. The head nurse saw a flash of light and went to investigate.
Moments later DaiDai, head of the nursing ward, this one included, checked to see a small drop of blood left on the capsule. One of his assistants was collecting this infant's data. Before his mind could race with the details he just checked on the infant. To add to this oddness it's clear the machine had been tempered with.
DaiDai looked towards the direction of the exit in great confusion.
Meanwhile a certain oddity arrived at the same time as someone was leaving. Cold dark eyes met warm anticipatory ones.
"Oh.. Aldera, Sir, what are you doing in a nursing ward?" Questioned the small woman, her tail flicking the air innocently.
"Hmm..ahh your bardocks mate." He noted. Aldera's expression went from suspicious to tired in an instant. "Coming to visit your child? That's the second one now. Right?"
"Yes, my eldest is returning from the front lines as we speak."
"Well, give Bardock my regards. I'm off" he ended the exchange abruptly as it wasn't something he really cared about.
As he stepped away he remembered that banana had been concealing the boy's data for some time now. Turning he watched the woman, Gine, move to her child's side. Their infant child kakarot was perhaps someone to look out for in the future. For now he returns to his duties.
***
King Vegeta awaited the news that his assassination of Freiza's spy was a successful one. Aldera should be returning any moment. At the current second he was speaking to his son.
"I see that your instruction under general Nappa is going well. Your eyes are sharper than when you started. Let me ask you this, son, what do you think about the rejects?"
Just a sudden question caught the prince off guard.
"The trash we throw in that hole?" The prince answered the question with his own, quickly, and just as sharply as his gaze.
"Yes, That pile."
"A total waste of time and space"
"Haha, agreed."
The point seemed to have fallen between them as the prince raised an eyebrow.
"So then why do we keep them around?" The prince asked.
"Well, it started with your grandfather, my father and his deal with the father of the flame squadron's leader." Said the king before launching into a brief tale.
He explained that his father and Kappa's father were brothers. Ones that didn't agree on a single aspect of how the Kingdom should rule. Of course the clear victor in the end was the prince's grandfather, but remnants of his brother's policies and laws remain. One such iron clad rule forbidding execution as a punishment. Instead of The King's father, the former king devised a prison to hold those who don't fit the rule. It was also set as a punishment for those who fail to meet the standard.
"But in the end, I think my uncle was on to something.." The king explained.
" Was he? Because the warriors who get assigned to that place could absolutely be used elsewhere." He just didn't understand it.
"Trust me son, in time you will understand my perspective. For now, work with the Middle-class and above to hone yourself. I look forward to the results you bring in the future"
It was at the end of their conversation that the dark haired and eyed man appeared by the kings side. "My liege" he announces his presence.
"Alright my son, you are dismissed" he waves with his hand. The prince turned on his heel before leaving the room.
"So I take it you were successful?" The King asked with his gaze straight.
"Yes, my liege"
"Excellent, weed out the rest of those traitorous contractees" he gives his right hand man the next mission before preparing to end his duties for the day.
"My leige, there were a few details I had to share," said Aldera. Seeing the nod of his king's head he explains in great detail what he found.
"So Frieza is getting weary is he?" Said The king with a smirk curling up his face. His laughter filled the room as Aldera untensed his shoulders. "Don't worry about the boy, there are several infants on his list. He just got sloppy and scared...just like that ice cream man"
The King felt his plans solidify in his mind. Now he had to urge Negi to take up more rejects to hone her leadership skills. He would wear that smug grin for quite awhile.
***
Back at the nursing ward, a baby's eyes were fluttering open. Around the same time on a daily basis.
@#$_ had woken up again.
"..." His mind wasn't particularly raised. This reality still feels like a permanent dream as he floats there. Still out of everything it's this woman's gaze that anchors him to this reality.
("So what is it today..") He mused as the woman began her daily small talk.
Even though her facts and new information was fun at first, it really devolved to something more mundane than he ever expected. She was a hunter and sold the meat she got from the beasts she captured. Apparently planet vegeta had some wildlife.
It wasn't until she mentioned his brother that he perked up. Rather than the detail she said he himself would be here. Today he would meet the elder brother who would defeat Goku would die defeating. A cowardly warrior who started the power scale in the early stages of Z.
@#$_ watched as a new familiar silhouette filled his gaze.
"Hey, Kakarot.." the new voice spoke.
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To be continued….