The Rebellion

Chapter I: Catch 22

"You're becoming a burden."

Frieza's words were cold and indifferent. The lizard's eyes flickered as his tail slithered around the side of his hover-throne like some enormous serpent. The three remaining members of the Saiyan race; Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz were kneeling down in front of Frieza, who had forced them into his employ after eradicating their home planet, Vegeta, and all of its inhabitants. Frieza had decided to keep the three alive as they were relatively easy to control, and, with the potential exception of the Prince himself, they would be no problem for one of Frieza's more powerful henchmen to annihilate if they ever decided to do something foolish like rebel. But still, they were becoming a nuisance. The vast majority of Frieza's army were grunts; weak, stupid and loyal. The Saiyans knew this and were playing power games behind Frieza's back; muscling the grunts into being more terrified of them than they were of the Tyrant himself. Those fools! At this rate it would only be a matter of time before Frieza would have to deal with a mass rebellion. But that wasn't going to happen; he was going to put those monkeys in their place.

"What do you mean we're becoming a burden?" queried Prince Vegeta innocently.

"You honestly think I'm not aware of your little charades? Nothing goes by without my notice in this place, Vegeta. Nothing."

"I have no Idea what you're talking about. Do you know what this about, Nappa?" Vegeta was trying to hide a smirk.

"No, Vegeta."

"What about you, Raditz?"

"Not a clue!"

"Don't take Lord Frieza for a fool you filthy Saiyan, or I can guarantee it will be the last thing you ever do!" roared Dodoria, losing his temper.

"Calm down, Dodoria, they're not worth it," assured Frieza, evil ideas beginning to form in his twisted mind.

"Listen to me, you three. As your ruler, I wish for you to remain loyal to me, and for that to happen, obviously you will need something in return for the often...shall we say...uninteresting tasks I assign to you."

The Saiyans stared at him intently, probably trying to determine if they were about to be the butt of some cruel joke.

"What I am trying to say is, you deserve appreciation for what you do. Am I right?"

They said nothing, but Vegeta couldn't resist sniggering at Frieza's obviously false sentimentality.

"Don't go expecting heartfelt letters or anything, but how would you feel about more purging missions to keep you satisfied?"

Nappa and Raditz both twitched with suppressed excitement, But Vegeta's eyes simply narrowed as he continued to stare into Frieza's.

"We'll need to discuss it," said Vegeta, choosing his words carefully.

"Well, I don't see what there could possibly be to discuss, but I want you back here before the end of the day with your decision."

Vegeta bowed and got up to leave, signalling for the other two to follow him

"Why didn't we just agree on the spot?" asked Raditz, as the three Saiyans made their way down a dark corridor that smelt of burnt flesh.

"Yeah, more purging missions! That sounds great!"

"Nappa, don't get too ahead of yourself, Frieza definitely has an ulterior motive," warned Vegeta.

"What do you mean?"

"Can't you see? As long as we're servants under Frieza, we have no future. He's going to keep using us until our Saiyan genes make us too powerful to control and then what? He'll dispose of us."

"Yeah, but the purg..."

"The purging missions are a way to speed up the process. We'll need to heal after every mission and we'll rapidly get more powerful."

"Well, isn't that a good thing?" asked Raditz.

"Haven't you listened to anything I've been saying, you fool!? He's going to kill us before we're powerful enough to rebel!"

"So why doesn't he just destroy us right now?"

"Because he wants to milk us for all we're worth. After all, we are the best at what we do."

Frieza had his head rested relaxedly on one hand, and was playfully swirling a glass of red wine around with the other. There was a smirk on his face that was broken the moment Zarbon decided to speak up;

"Lord Frieza, if you don't mind my asking, why is it that the Saiyans are being rewarded with extra purging missions?"

"Not 'rewarded', Zarbon. Quite the opposite, in fact. There is no doubt in my mind that Vegeta will see through the first layer of my plan. He has always been very clever for a monkey, not that that's saying much."

"First layer of your plan?"

"He'll come to the conclusion that I'm only giving them more strenuous missions to shorten their time of use, but he's wrong."

"Well...then, why are you doing it?"

"Zarbon, how long have you worked under me?"

"Well, Lord Frieza, it's been..."

"A very long time. And in that time, how many bad decisions have you seen me make?"

"None, my lord."

"Exactly. Now Dodoria..." said Frieza, turning to his larger subordinate;

"...I know how much you hate the Saiyans, so I have arranged a very satisfying mission for you."

Dodoria grinned and clenched his fists.

"The two weaker Saiyans are heading to Frieza Planet #213 very soon to pick up the latest model scouters from one of the laboratories. I want you follow them there and ambush them. You are NOT to kill them, Dodoria, is that understood?"

"Yes my lord."

"Make them beg for mercy. Once you have broken nearly every bone in their bodies I want you to bring them back here so that the useless scum who allowed themselves to be bullied by the Saiyans can be reminded of who the boss is."

"Heh heh, I've waited for this for a long time, Lord Frieza, and I won't let you down."

"Of course you won't."

Dodoria lumbered over to the door, stretching his arm muscles.

"Oh, and Dodoria, one more thing."

"What's that, my lord?"

"Don't forget to bring back the scouters."