Final Fate

The punishment

Everysingle word the king spoke to Son Goku was drenched in power,authority and the knowledge of absolute arrogance. A small,admonishing voice in Goku's head screamed reason at him, screamed athim not to do it, that he would be of no use to his friends dead, butto no avail. The anger and rage at this monstrosity, that this guybefore him, had just killed someone for no reason, simply because hecould, because he wanted to make a point to him, to Goku, was beyondcomprehension of anything he had experienced in his life so far.Uncontrolled rage surged up inside him and before his mind evenunderstood what he was about to do, his body had already carried itout.

Hisfists, which were still in golden clamps and connected to a shortchain, shot upwards, grabbing the chain that was attached to his neckcollar as his body moved into an instinctive twist, he extended hisleg and kicked the chair out from under the Saiyan king's butt. Heducked away from under the tightening chain on his neck, using hisarms to prevent it from wrapping around his neck like a noose.

Secondsafter he went into this attack, everything happened at once. Vegeta'sbrows rose in surprise, the servants' eyes widened in bewilderment,the two Freiceadan rushed forward, the king raised his hand to holdthem back, the chair fell over with a clatter, but Vegeta had alreadyrisen into the air, the chain from Goku's neck tightened in his hand,and as the clatter of the falling chair faded, an eerie silence fellinto the great dining hall. No one stirred and only the pulsing ballof energy that Vegeta casually hovered over his palm announced whatwas now inevitably to follow.

SonGoku, who could barely stand on the balls of his feet because of thetaut chain around his neck, made no sound. This, the little voice ofreason in his head told him, was the stupidest thing he had done inhis life so far; and he really had done some stupid things before.But that had really taken the biscuit. His black eyes fixed on theball of energy and he was sure that he would follow the unfortunatecreature to his right at any moment.

Butthe seconds passed and nothing happened. Nothing, except that hisgaze ate into the king's and the king stared back with a stony andindistinct expression. Why, Vegeta asked himself, floating casuallyin the air, did I not kill him immediately in reflex? Why did Ihesitate? And why do I still hesitate? Had there been a thought? Hadthere been an instinctive feeling? Was there something I wasconsciously thinking? It irritated him. It irritated him mightily.Anyone else ... anyone else, his reflexes from years of drill, wouldhave killed him instantly. So... why not him? Why not this brat?There had to be a reason and until he knew that reason, he wouldlisten to that instinct ... he could always kill him later.

Floatingtowards the ground, he extinguished the energy ball above his palmand threw the chain to one of his bodyguards, who immediately pulledGoku away from their king. A servant rushed over and righted theking's chair and as if nothing had happened, Vegeta sat down andcalmly began to eat again. When he had finished, he wiped his mouthwith a serving dish and looked to a servant. "I want to talk toVeran, send him here." To another he gave the nod that it wastime to clear away.

Whilethe servants hurried to obey their ruler's order, his black gaze wassolely on the rebellious boy and his thoughts were occupied with thequestion: why, why and again why? But no matter how many times andfrom which side he looked at it, he found no satisfactory result andcertainly no reason and that was something he absolutely did not wantto be satisfied with. His decisions as king had to be based on alogical and rational conclusion, based on something his mind had madecrystal clear to him. He could listen to his instincts and reflexesin battle. To mix the two would have been a stupidity without equal.A king did not do such a thing, never, he remembered his father'sadmonishing words.

Theboy had attacked him and his reflexes had reacted, but it could notbe called a fight in the senses, for the little one was far too weakfor that. So why had he suddenly felt attacked, but still notresponded with the appropriate force? Goku's action had beenthoroughly stupid, but the way it had been executed and the way hehad moved spoke of a cleverly thought-out manoeuvre. So the youngSaiyan in front of him had not only resisted a Minotaur invasionforce through sheer strength, but very likely through sound tacticsas well, which meant he must have had a teacher.