Protection the Raditz Way

My Stepfather\'s a Saiyan named Raditz

Disclaimer: I don\'t own Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama does. I don\'t own Full Metal Alchemist, Amniplex does. Funimation distributes and holds rights to both shows. I own Atomique, Fermi, and Bohr. I don\'t get paid for this, and it\'s a work of fan fiction that means no harm.

Chapter 2 Babysitting the Twins Solo
***

A small murmur awakened him. Raditz blinked down at the curly hair just beneath his chin, realizing it belonged to a small boy. More specifically a small boy curled up and balanced across his shirt covered chest. Small strong hands were buried in his hair, belonging to said boy. To his other side his arm was curled around a small identical head of curly hair belonging to an identical twin curled up against Raditz\'s hip.

All three males lay nestled together in the king sized bed. Morning sunlight peeked through vertical blinds in Raditz\'s quarters that he shared with Atomique. For the past few weeks she had spent most of her time staying there. Raditz had expressed interest in getting to know her sons since he sealed their mating bond. As a result, Atomique\'s twins spent much time in the guestroom down the hall. Yet for the past three nights the boys had terrible nightmares regarding Blackwell and the Destroyers. Strangely they never had nightmares sleeping at the Son house. Fortunately if they slept with her they were fine, and since Raditz didn\'t mind the boys climbing into bed with them, they had slept with both their mother and their new Saiyan parent.

Uncomfortable with trying to outright replace their deceased father, Raditz had consented to letting the boys call him Uncle. They called Goku Son-kun-san as a term of endearment, despite Goku being their foster father. He too was sensitive to not confusing the boys. Nevertheless both Goku and Raditz were careful to reassure the boys that they were full members of the Son family. After all they called Gohan and Goten \'brother\' and Videl \'sister\'. Also, Raditz had adopted Son as his surname. To the compound he was known as Son Raditz, Son Goku\'s older brother. He bore the name with a sense of renewed pride for his younger brother who was the Legendary. Since Atomique was now his mate, she too bore the Son family name.

Bohr was the name of the five-year old boy lying atop Raditz\'s chest. Fermi denoted his identical twin brother who was two minutes older then Bohr curled up in the warm place his mother had left before getting up. Long tendrils of spiky hair were around and under Fermi, giving him a little warm nest to curl up in. For the first time Raditz was stunned to see such a use for his hair. It was his bane and his pride, the long locks that could be seized by an enemy or trail behind his head like a victory banner.

Samson came to mind. Raditz heard the tale she told of the warrior with long hair who never had a razor touch his scalp. His incredible strength was derived from said hair, and he fought for a people called the Israelites against a conquering people. Not till he took a mate who beguiled him and cut off his hair did he loose his strength? Delilah, the man\'s treacherous mate worked for the enemy tribe, who blinded Samson. Only when the weakling prayed to His Lord Almighty did he get his strength back. In one blow he slew his enemies by cracking the pillars of the palace and crushing them under its collapse.

\"I remember now. Tomique chan wanted me to \'baby sit\',\" Raditz mumbled, scratching his scalp. He blinked in the brightness of the morning sun, slowly dragging his fingers through his mane of spikes. She had jokingly called him Samson and Tarzan because of his hair and simian features.

Samson and other heroes were the raw material for bedtime stories she told her two sons. Sometimes she used other sources, but \'The Good Book\' was the most poetic sounding. Saiyans had a similar series of texts, but the latest King Vegeta had banned them. His father Bardock had one of the few remaining scrolls sealed up in one of his flasks that he sometimes read to his mother years ago. Raditz remembered the Scroll of Life, which held forbidden words of a time and world of origin. It was said to contain things that were far too great and terrible for mortal comprehension. Stories of the Saiyan race\'s creation and destruction.

Likewise, his woman\'s Good Book consisted of many stories stretching back that chronicled the creation and destruction of Earth. Divided into sixty-six books ranging from wisdom to the life of the one human being denoted \"Son of God\" it had almost everything one needed for life on this world and her next dimension. Often he caught her reading it when she was upset or requiring inspiration. It was \'The Good Book\' as far as his scouter translated.

Gently he reached over and grabbed the book from under his pillow. He opened to what seemed like a large break in the book, to something called Apocrypha, and leafed through the ribbon page he\'d marked. A small whimper came from Fermi, and Raditz dropped the black leather bound volume next to Atomique\'s side of the bed. Brown eyes blinked up into Raditz\'s, with a questioning glance.

\"Good morning young warrior,\" Raditz mumbled. \"What ails you?\"

\"I thought I heard my Daddy, but when I woke up he was gone, Uncle Radz,\" mumbled Fermi. He curled more tightly into the warrior\'s arm. Another whimper came from a quivering Bohr, who buried his face in the expanse of Raditz\'s chest.

Raditz ran his finger over the leather cover of Atomique\'s sacred book. It reminded him of the Scroll of Destiny and the Scroll of Life, the sacred books of the Saiyan religion. Always Raditz wanted to know what the Scroll of Life had said. It spoke of the Legendary and of Great Father Oorzu, their chief deity. Worship of both was permitted, but none but the religious chief priests were allowed to read the Scroll of Life. Everyone read the scroll of Destiny, consisting of thirty stories recited by every warrior. But the Life Scroll held books not contained by Destiny, and Bardock often said it was banned because it detailed the Saiyans as having a far greater destiny then conquering planets and lands for their manifest destiny.

\"Daddy don\'t go,\" Bohr sniffled. Fermi glanced up at a very perplexed Raditz, who sat up with his arms around both boys.

\"Little one, what\'s wrong?\" Raditz mumbled.

\"He always cries like this after a nightmare,\" Fermi mumbled. \"Wake up, we\'re okay!\"

\"Uncle Raddishman?\" mumbled Bohr glancing up at Raditz, who couldn\'t resist a chuckle. He shook his head realizing this was the same child who called Kakkarot Mr. Funnyman on account of his hair and jokes.

\"Yes boy?\" asked Raditz. \"Did you dream of your father?\"

\"Yeah, but he was gone,\" Fermi pouted, his lips curving into an expression that made him look like a fish. \"He always disappears when Blackwell comes. And then Bohr wakes up.\"

\"Daddy\'s not there anymore. He\'s there, and not there,\" Bohr rubbed his eyes. \"Why?\"

\"I don\'t know why, he\'s got lots of work to do on Astron Tellar or something,\" Fermi glanced at his twin brother. Raditz realized they were speaking in a strange language that his ears were struggling to pick up. Just why he understood it intrigued him. Was it because he had somehow learned it from reading Atomique\'s Good Book?

Atomique explained that her Good Book was an \'uncut\' version whereas the commonly \'accepted\' version called the King James contained ones that were accepted by an offshoot of her native religion five hundred years past. Both were written in English a language very different from that, which was spoken in West City. He was no stranger to forbidden texts. Yet she had let him read her Good Book on his own terms, and he found himself wondering WHY a ningen text was so intriguing. Raditz became a book worm with this and other human texts often stealing into Capsule\'s library and taking other \'classic\'s like Moby Dick, Stranger in a Strange Land, War of the Worlds, Island of Dr. Moreaux, and others from the fantasy and SF collection.

\"That isn\'t English is it?\" he asked.

\"It\'s our own language,\" Fermi glanced up at him. \"Sorry. Mommy said we weren\'t supposed to use our special language around anyone else.\"

\"We gotta talk normal speech. But I don\'t like Japanese,\" said Bohr annoyed.

\"It sounds like that King James,\" mumbled Raditz. \"And like the language your mother speaks in her dreams when she\'s upset. That Deutsche.\"

\"Mommy thinks best in Deutsche,\" said Fermi. \"Stop pouting and wake up. It\'s just a dream. You know Daddy\'s in Heaven.\"

\"No he\'s in Otherworld,\" Bohr glared at him. \"And he says we gotta take care of mommy. But I miss him! Why can\'t he be HERE? I think it STINKS! Why can\'t he be here with us like you are?\"

\"I don\'t know,\" Raditz said honestly as the boy\'s eyes glistened with tears. He glanced over to see that Atomique had already gotten up, for her bedside was vacant. Groaning he saw a note pinned to her pillow that Fermi passed.

\"Mommy left a note. She says she\'s sorry an\' that you were gonna train us,\" said Fermi apologetically looking at a confused Raditz.

\"The writing is strange,\" he muttered, glancing at the cursive script.

\"Mommy writes like that when she\'s in a hurry,\" said Bohr.

\"What does it say? I\'m not familiar with Deutsche written out,\" Raditz cursed.

\"Says \'I very sorry am. Please be caring for the little ones. I will call you during midday break eating. Will enjoy tonight with you being….\" Fermi blinked. Raditz realized he was reading the literal meaning of the words into this \'English\'.

\"Not the funny talk, brother,\" said Bohr. \"Mommy says we can\'t use that tongue except around her and each other.\"

\"I prefer this English,\" Raditz rubbed his eyes. \"It contains the remnants of many languages that I\'ve heard. You may converse with me regularly in it.\"

\"Oh thank you uncle Radish man!\" Bohr giggled leaning up and kissing Raditz on his cheek. Groaning the Saiyan blushed at the open affection that sons often shared with fathers.

\"You know he hates that! Saiyans don\'t show affection like that silly!\" Fermi scolded him. \"You\'re such a toddler.\"

\"He may do that around me. Your mother gave him permission, and she won\'t mind me speaking in your English either,\" Raditz said.

It was the language her Good Book was written in. In a fit of rabid curiosity, Raditz had picked up her Good Book and started to leaf through it. He was stumped as to WHERE to begin, till she found him scratching his head with a small smile. She turned him towards several specific \'books\' she recommended he should start with. Apparently there was a preferred order by which one unfamiliar with the tome read through them. Ignoring her he started at Genesis and ploughed ahead.

Genesis meant beginning. So he was at the beginning of a new day with two boys. Raditz gently nudged them saying, \"Rise young warriors and go dress. I\'ll join you soon. We must eat and decide what to do today once I speak with the Prince.\"

\"Okay Uncle Radz,\" said Fermi. \"Last one dressed is a rotten egg!\"

\"Race ya!\" Bohr laughed, distracted by their childish game. \"Bet we beat you Uncle Radish man!\"

\"WE shall see,\" Raditz laughed. He patted both boys on their backs, and then hauled himself out of bed. They darted to the dresser and started to dig out two training outfits neatly sewed for them by Chichi.

\"I\'m green, you\'re yellow!\" Fermi argued.

\"Not!\" Bohr shot back.

Raditz watched and listened while grabbing his own spandex and armor. He thought about the Good Book again. When he reached Deuteronomy he was still perplexed but rather pleased that he\'d found something that made some sense in a crazy world. The Israelites were a warrior people, something he could identify with, and their fight to survive struck a cord in him. When he reached the tales of King David and King Solomon he was floored. David was quite the warrior and poet, a man more like the Legendary in some ways. But prone to corruption. An odd eerie feeling settled over him when he kept plugging through all the books one by one. Psalms was particularly entertaining. He stumbled even across prophecies that reminded him of scraps of what his father had told him were contained in Destiny. But life contained things that were alluded to, but never answered.

\"Done!\" Bohr laughed.

\"Only by two seconds!\" Fermi answered. Raditz hauled his breastplate over his head, fastening the clips by the time both boys rushed up in their orange Son gi.

\"Ready to go?\" Raditz asked, stomping both boots to seat his feet properly in them.

\"Do that again! You\'re shaking up the whole floor!\" Bohr giggled.

\"Why are you stomping all the time?\" Fermi asked, scrunching his brow at Raditz. He extended a hand to either boy, while striding to the door.

\"Because he\'s from a world with bigger gravity pull, dummy,\" Bohr stuck his tongue out at Fermi.

\"I knew that, you toddler!\" Fermi glared back.

\"Quiet you two and let\'s go without these verbal pot shots. Your Mother said that it wasn\'t permitted till she said so,\" Raditz scolded them. His voice was a bit sharper then he liked, but both boys instantly listened.

\"Sorry Uncle,\" said Fermi.

\"That\'s better. Let\'s go down and eat now, young ones,\" Raditz said. \"I\'m sorry I snapped. I\'m used to shouting orders.\"

\"That\'s okay,\" Bohr said, leading him with a tug towards the door. He focused his eyes carefully, and Raditz saw the keys pushing in a sequence through focused TK.

\"Hey, no TK in the house!\" Fermi glared.

\"Shh it\'s faster this way!\" Bohr growled. Still the door slid open, and he tugged Raditz\'s gauntlet hand to drag him out into the hall. Amused, Raditz strode with long legged pace with either boy clasped to his hands. They only came to his mid thigh, but their grips on his huge hands were viselike. He knew that Goku had taught them to focus their powers, and they augmented their natural strength with TK.

\"Faster!\" Bohr laughed; jumping and skipping to keep pace with Raditz\'s long legged stride.

\"Stop playing around you look silly!\" Fermi glared at him, marching three steps to every one of Raditz\'s.

\"Let\'s fly, it\'s faster,\" said Bohr.

\"Later,\" Raditz grunted. Bohr pouted, but obeyed till they reached the stairs and he grabbed either boy up to effortlessly rest them on his broad shoulders. Instead of taking the steps he levitated and flew down in a zigzag pattern.

\"YEAH!\" Bohr cheered. Fermi whooped and they were downstairs and halfway across the Saiyan complex towards the cafeteria.