Chapter 6 - chapter 2 part3

🌌 Saiyan of the Red Dawn

Chapter 2 – First Test

(Part 3 – Conclusion)

They escorted Kael from the arena in silence.

Every soldier who watched him pass felt the same uneasy truth settle in their hearts:

One day, he would surpass them all.

He was taken to a private training chamber deep beneath the palace—an old, reinforced gravity cell once used to discipline rebellious nobles.

It would serve a new purpose now.

The chamber doors locked behind him with a resonant boom.

Kael turned a slow circle, studying the scuffed steel walls, the overhead emitters, the control dais built into the observation alcove.

Nappa leaned against the railing above, one arm in a sling.

"First lesson," he called down, voice hoarse. "Gravity training."

A technician keyed in a sequence.

With a hum that made Kael's bones vibrate, the gravity increased—ten times, then twenty.

Kael dropped to one knee, breath hissing through his teeth.

"Your body's strong," Nappa continued. "But without discipline, it's wasted potential."

Kael dug his fingers into the floor, fighting to stand.

"Push through it," Nappa barked. "A real Saiyan grows stronger through suffering."

He tried to lift his head. The pressure felt like a mountain crushing his spine.

In the observation deck, King Vegeta folded his arms.

"Raise it," he ordered.

The technician hesitated. "Sire, he's only—"

"Raise it to fifty times gravity."

The technician swallowed hard and complied.

The chamber roared as the field intensified.

Kael's vision swam black at the edges. His heart hammered wildly.

If you ever stop, even for a second…you lose everything.

Nappa's words burned in his mind.

He clenched his jaw.

I won't stop.

His muscles quivered, locked in rebellion. But inch by inch, he forced his knee off the floor.

A strangled shout tore from his throat as he rose.

Nappa's grin returned. "Good!"

The king watched without expression.

"Keep him in there until he loses consciousness," he said. "Then revive him and begin again."

Nappa inclined his head. "As you command."

Three times Kael collapsed. Three times he was revived with nutrient injections and electroshock pulses.

Each time he stood faster.

Each time he glared up at the deck with unbroken defiance.

By the end of the cycle, sweat streamed from his hair in rivers. His vision was little more than a red haze.

But he remained upright.

And in that final moment, even King Vegeta felt a sliver of something he refused to name—respect, or perhaps dread.

When they finally lowered the gravity and allowed him to rest, Kael curled up in the corner of the chamber floor.

He was so tired he thought he might slip back into the old darkness—the final sleep that had swallowed his first life.

But the warmth he had glimpsed in his earliest dreams returned.

A memory of a woman with soft hands and a voice like starlight. A promise waiting in some far-off future.

Keep going.

Don't stop.

His breath steadied. His eyes closed.

And in that darkness, he dreamed not of battles…but of something he had never known before:

A place where he belonged.

A family.

In the observation deck, Nappa finally spoke.

"He's ready for combat drills."

King Vegeta nodded once. "So be it. When he wakes…we begin."

Nappa turned to leave, but the king's voice stopped him.

"General."

"Sire?"

"Never forget what you saw here."

Nappa met his gaze, unflinching. "I won't."

King Vegeta's mouth twitched in something almost like a smile.

"Good. One day, the empire may depend on this boy."

End of Chapter 2