The sun rose on another day. Planet vegeta was going about its business as it did any other day. That is aside from the pressing amount of high ranking officer's mates being murdered.
"Elite Guardsman Aldera is responsible for taking down the parties responsible" the heading, only to further explain he had been too late for his own mate.
This information wouldn't reach the prison
***
Between the mountains far from the capital city lay a huge ravine where a base is fashioned into a large cavern. Deeper in this cavern is an out of place wooden box. A home made of some trees that grow deeper deeper inside. The construction was rigid in that it was more function than form.
The one of a kind home to a family of three.
Their main bed was sturdy and large enough for the three of them. A large burly father with heat cracked and battle hardened skin, a sickly mother with unnatural choppy blue hair, and finally their daughter a little ball of fiery potential, her hair was a mass clump that defined gravity sharply aside from the locks of hair that fell just barely into her face.
They all wore what they had on before entering the room. Mizu had her gown fashioned out of a cloak, Kappa was wearing this armor and cloak, and Zukki had her bodysuit.
Zukki was upside down, nuzzling somehow in between her mother and father with a content expression. This little moment for them was the eye of their stormy lives.
Truthfully Mizu had been in and out for hours. Only now when the sun shines through the window, breaking through the cracks of the cavern to light it up, does she jostle a little. Kappa was a light sleeper so he would stir next. For Zukki, the last day or so had been the most comfortable she felt in nearly a month so she wasn't getting up so easily.
Mizu warms the cool morning with her soft laugh. Weak giggles that only intensified as Kappa lifted Zukki and turned her around by her collar. The girl's face was scrunched up as if her dreams were something fiercely frustrating.
"Already at war" Kappa sighs as if he didn't want his daughter to be facing these types of trials already.
"A hard worker, she's your child after all" muses Mizu as she brushes a lock of spiky hair away from the girl's face.
Before they could break the growing tension of the burning morning hours the little girl herself began to stir. Little eyes fluttering open followed by a sleepy yawn.
They let her slowly adjust. Every second passing by is a moment in which their resolve solidifies further. By the time Zukki was fully awake they were ready to confide in her their truths.
Zukki's eyes slowly went from wide to squinted as she noticed the concerning expressions on her parent's faces.
"G'moring.." she finally speaks, her tone barely above a soft squeak. Zukki squirms as if that reaction wasn't the right one. Pushing up and off her mother and father she turns around to face them. Standing up straight on the bed with her hands on her hips.
"Father.. mother, i want to continue training." She says with her chest puffed and lips pouting as if needing to be taken seriously. The act was wholly unnecessary.
"Reading minds now are we?" Mizu coos softly, masking the aches and chills racking her body.
"We were just thinking you need to get right on to it, because.. because.." she continues only to struggle to admit they had less time together than she had hoped.
Mizu was stopped by a rough and dry yet warm hand.
"Because king Vegeta has declared you will return to the prison at the end of the week." Kappa takes over for Mizu.
"What..I have to go back!? But father and Mom–and everyone is here." Her pout becomes uneven as a tear falls from her face. Before they could catch it, she did, wiping it away with great defiance. "Because I'm not strong enough yet?"
Neither of them could deny her words. It was ironically a harsh truth they had to accept.
"No, Zukki.." they both start only to look at each other. The brief exchange held significance, who would take the brunt of the truth.
"I'm not strong..me..little ember" Mizu says first, now she's tearing up, her lips curling into a smile unbefitting the feelings she is displaying. "We want everyone to have a chance to get stronger..and you are our hope."
"Should.." Zukki hesitates. "Uncie Karada said I should be stronger than father" she rewords her own sentence. Tossing her uncle right under the bus.
Kappa had his mouth in an "o" shape, holding back a genuine chortle. The sheer flattery in knowing his daughter was using him as a measuring stick of power.
"Yeah" both Father and mother responded at about the same time. They didn't even seem surprised, like it was rehearsed. Because Kappa moved on to the next topic.
"Your mother taught me how to use flames over energy, and i studied the booklet she carried for ages" he starts then let's Mizu continue. It was both of their stories to share.
"I could never understand it..but one day we had the smart idea of copying the poses. And next thing you know..honey do you want to guess what happened?"
"The poses? You learned how to dance?" She questioned innocently and logically with the mood having turned so light.
"Noo no hun, we got so much stronger." She corrected softly while holding back weak laughter. "At first people didn't want to believe it, but look at your father, Jetto, Karada, Hikari, and Ringu.. we've all come so far."
Her weak grin rose, stretching fully wide with happiness as if borrowing all the energy she'll have for the week to inspire this one day.
"Kappa will show you how many followers we have.." her words come softly, but she feels the need to rephrase it, shaking her head to emphasize this. "He'll show you our growing family"
"Hmm" Zukki's expression was skeptical. Lips pursed, pressing into one cheek in a pondering pouty look. Did she care about everyone, all randoms as family, just because they took the responsibility of keeping them safe?
Kappa was surprised, sitting up on the bed.
"Is it strange.. considering everyone in the prison as family?" He said in a tone even softer than it had been. He was digging deep in the well for these memories.
Zukki nods and Mizu observes, the latter conserving her strength.
"My father created the Prison, but back then it was a home for those who were uncertain. A place where the weaker naive saiyans could..well..slowly tend to their embers" he starts this long emotional speech pulls everyone in.
Mizu hadn't heard it in a long time. Parts of her Beloved's past. Learning more about her dear father, Zukki stood firm and listened closely with all her attention.
Kappa explained how he himself was lost early in his life, he was resilient, but held no drive so his father made the base alongside King Vegeta's father to increase efficiency on the lower end. The hierarchy actually thought about the whole of the race back then.
"And that Zukki is how I met your mother" he said tenderly before continuing. This deeply amused Zukki while getting a weak giggle from the woman herself.
In the base he had met her, her weak flames and weird booklet. All of it explained through his honest lens, but he had to make sure to lay on how those aspects of Mizu were endearing at the end or face the memory of her fiery wrath. He warmly explained how they inspired each other, the comrades he made, and how tragically it all ended.
He spent years in that base, letting others pass him by as he worked with Mizu. Kappa felt especially close with a few of the really bad saiyans, ones who really fell to the back of the pack. Still even his day would have to leave–and he did so around the time he was breaking through with Mizu's flames. Leaving behind many comrades he would never see again.
Years after that when the King at the time died, and the current assumed his throne Kappa didn't think things would change so much. King Vegeta saw the bottom line and cut it. Culling the supplementary base and turning it into a prison in one fell swoop.
He wasn't even allowed to return and they were clearly keeping an eye on his partner so he chose to play their game for as long as he could stomach it.
"Until..one day my father on his dying breath shared with me the location of these ancient carvings. A secret and to not trust king Vegeta."
The whole story was simply too much to process, even for a saiyan child. Zukki essentially came to the understanding that her father also spent time in the prison, that he met her mother in that same place.
"Wait..father. So are you saying you were as weak as the guys in the prison!?" She finally puts two and two together.
"Yes.." he says with a mildly defeated sigh, but he was over that feeling as quick as it came.
"Love, weakness isn't evil. Just remember...…" The last bit was whispered only for Zukki to hear. "You are weaker than someone else aren't you?"
Zukki's eyes darted to Kappa's with tiny reverence.
"Alright, it's time we show you"
"The secret?"
"Yes, the ancient carvings. It changed everything once I realized what they meant."
***
The three of them, yes even Mizu with help, made their way nearly a mile behind the home they have within the cavern. Like an underground grove, but it continues to stretch out for an agonizingly long and small decline until finally a movie screen sized wall of flat rock was before them. It had a clear depiction of saiyans.
"This is what my father held secret, and his father before him…. for as long as they've known apparently. But that's less than important. My father told me that energy couldn't make this possible..but.." he paused to look at the carvings.
Six characters with tails surrounded by a spiky aura that goes into one. That one character goes on to clearly beat huge monkey shaped carvings. Beside the carvings themselves the walk itself looks somewhat carved around its edges as if it could have been moved in the past.
"If we have six of us who can control flames around us long enough we will become super..not My uncle's ordinary legend, but a god who will change this universe. When you are strong enough we will make the Super Saiyan God, our God of flames!"
This moves the little girl finally.
.
"Father, who will be the super saiyan god?" she asks with giddy energy and starry-eyes.
"Oh.." he says, always assuming it was going to be Mizu actually. His eyes flick to hers and hers are on Zukki.
"Well, you, Zukki….you are our hope, the universe's hope for salvation." He fell to his knee before his little girl. Putting his hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes with some sorrow. "Do you want to take this responsibility?"
Kappa bit his lip enough to bleed.
"We never wanted you to work anywhere near the King, but it seems that it was inevitable," he adds before she responds.
"No…father it's ok.." she tries to understand, but still lacks the wisdom to fully grasp their plight. "I want to he strong.. stronger than you and mother. So I'll be the flame god" she adds with a mischievous smirk meant to build the room back up.
"You will.." he says while looking into her eyes. Mizu comes up behind her and wraps her arms around her. "Oh, honey.."
"What is honey mother..you always call me that"
"Oh it's a sweet thing these bugs make on other planets."
"I'm going to be the flame god…I'm not sweet"
The three of them shared a soft laugh before Kappa punctuates the moment.
"Promise to keep as much of this to yourself as you can, the king already knows we have tricks. For now only we know what these carvings really mean"
"I promise"
***
The rest of Zukki's time flew by in a flash. Although her flame conjuring needs work, the physical aspects of her training were going well. She was told to keep those as secret as well, although they aren't strict on it, because the prison is filled with potential allies.
She became a natural adept at doing her exercises. Ate her full and rested naturally–healed naturally too. In between all that she was introduced to many more faces, slowly coming around to the idea her father was explaining about family. To Zukki they were different, the prisoners were uncivil aside from just two or three of them.
On the day she was to return the elite guardsmen with a terrifying aura waltzed right into the base. Right through the front door and demanded for his prisoner in the shrill crackle of a voice.
"Where's my prisoner!"
Aliens and Saiyan alike cowardly ran at the sudden arrival. But the flame Squadrons elite were on time. Ringu and Hikai flank Kappa and Zukk. Jetto and Karada stand parallel ahead and to the side.
"Woow you brought the whole part–" Aldera lazily lifts his fist to block a flying kick to his jaw.
Pat!
"Grrrr shut it" she growles judging this man solely by the reaction of those around him, to how he acts.
Pushing off, landing, and diving into his gut next only for the gangly man to just turn his body to the right and catch her by the tail. Zukki instantly goes limp at that.
"Kid…I'll kill you" he lifts his hand and for a brief moment the temperature in the room rises to blisteringly hot, so he wisely lowers his hand.
Kappa and the rest of the squadron had been burning the air at the edges of their skin. Lines of smoke curled off them.
"But my job is transport. His majesty king Vegeta has ordered no outside interference is allowed at the prison for them next month. This is an absolute decree from the King so honor it with your lives" he says nastily before floating away.
Kappa had to watch him carry off his daughter like an object. He wouldn't see her for a month, Kappa clenched his fist and resolved to make this a better place for when she returns.
Sadly a few days after that Kappa would find the lifeless body of his partner.
Mizu had finally succumbed to her sickness.