Chapter One: The New Assignment
Vegeta was interrupted by the loud-speakers echo, bouncing around the training room, which he currently occupied.
"Get down here now, boy!" came the disgustingly familiar voice of Freiza, Vegeta's Lord, "I have a new job for you," His filthy laugh filled the room, and Vegeta covered his sensitive ears. He felt pathetic, having to listen to such a slimy bastard because he was more powerful than him. Freiza was the scum of the universe if Vegeta could call him out on it. But even if he said something Freiza didn't like, he would be punished, and Vegeta hated being punished. He used to tell himself that he deserved his punishments because he did something to deserve them. Later on, he tried to tell himself that the punishments would make him stronger if he endured them. Now that he was no longer a child, he just told himself that one day, he would be able to kill Freiza, and then he would punish him… Vegeta style.
He grabbed his towel, dried off the sweat from his upper body, snatched his shirt of the rack, and stampeded down the hallway to Freiza's chambers, throwing it over his head as he walked. That disgusting pile of shit was going to pay for what he had done to the Saiyan Prince. He had destroyed his planet, murdered his father, and taken him in as a pet when he was only a boy. He trained him to destroy populations, to obey every order and command given to him by his senior officers. Him! A Prince! Taking orders from someone else! Oh, it made him want to bash Freiza's head into a bloody pulp!
He slammed open the doors to Freiza's main chamber and knocked over a few of the guards in his way, not really caring if they tried to hit him. Only a few special people on this planet could hurt him. They were Freiza, or course, his two right-hand men, Zarbon and Dodoria, and the Ginyu Force, who were probably on the other side of the planet by now. They were sent to kill a few meddlesome people in a different region of the planet. They would be back before dinner.
"What!" Vegeta snarled, looking directly at the lizard he was forced to call his Lord.
"Now, now, Vegeta. Is that any way to greet your master? I think you should leave and try it again. Go ahead. Go out that door, and then come back in and greet me properly."
"What do you want, Freiza!" he snarled again, knowing that he was going to pay for not listening to a direct order from Freiza himself.
A large energy beam was shot out of a green hand to Vegeta's right, moving so fast that he didn't have enough time to dodge it. He was hit in the leg, knocking him down, his face coming extremely close to hitting the floor. He stood back up, prepared for a fight, but his better judgment told him to turn around and do as ordered, so he did. If he got beat up too much, then he wouldn't have enough energy to continue training when he was finished here. So, he ignored the laughing guards and made his way back the way he came. He slammed the door behind him and then turned around slowing his breathing. If he was going to do this without getting himself in any kind of trouble, he was going to have to hold his tongue.
He slowly opened the door for the second time and walked to the center of the room, where he paused to bow. Getting down on one knee he seethed (against his better judgment), "Yes, my Lord?"
"Now that's so much better! Isn't that better Zarbon?"
Vegeta glanced over at the laughing scumbag who hit him before and had to actually force himself not to go over there and throw a few punches at him. Besides, he knew he'd probably miss anyway. That was why he had to focus on doing this right. So he could get back to the training room so he could be able to fight off Zarbon one day, and he had a feeling it would be one day soon.
"That's a good boy, Vegeta," Freiza said, "Are you ready for your new assignment now? I hand-picked it, specifically for you. Aren't you exited?"
"Yes, my Lord," he said, wanting badly to add a few well thought-out remarks to the end of his 'ungrateful reply,' as Zarbon would have called it.
"You have a charge!" Freiza said, as if he was his father, getting a straight-A report card for him in the mail. It made Vegeta want to throw up at the high-pitched tone he used. "And I picked out a pretty girl so you two can play together in your spare time. Guards! Bring her in here!"
Great. A bodyguard assignment. It sure had been a while since he was assigned one of those. Vegeta always thought they were assignments for children. Even if Freiza knew Vegeta didn't like him much, it certainly didn't stop him from trying to dance on his nerves. And it usually worked, too.
It wasn't long before he got to see the pathetic excuse for a girl that was to be his charge for God knew how long. She was thrown to the floor in front of Vegeta as he straightened out, knowing that if he bowed any longer he would snap. And he didn't mean physically. He wondered why, if he was given an assignment to protect this pathetic ball of flesh, most of the guards were kicking her around on the floor. Was this a prank? Assignments were given because people, idiots in Vegeta's point of view, paid Freiza to have them done. If someone paid him to protect this girl, why was he allowing his guards to harm her? He knew why, because Freiza could do anything he wanted. If they didn't pay him, he would just kill them and take all their money. There was nothing anyone could do. Somewhere deep down inside of him, he felt a pang of pity for the girl. She was, in a way, just like him. Freiza could do anything he wanted with her, and she could do nothing about it.
Even though he had a pinch of pity for her, it wasn't nearly enough to distract him. He would just lock her up in the dungeons and go back to training. It's not like anyone would actually bother hurting a weakling like her. She wouldn't be worth anyone's time, especially his. The dungeons could do wonders for the weak. He figured he'd throw her in there for a few days with only bread and water. That ought to toughen her up a bit.
"Vegeta," Freiza's angry tone made everyone in the room but Zarbon and Vegeta jump, "I just told that this girl is your charge. What are you doing just standing there? Those fools are going to get you in big trouble with me if you continue to let her get hurt like that."
He had better be joking. This was really not the right time for this. Vegeta raised a single hand and the guards around the girl all jumped up. A few ran out of the room. Any who remained after two more seconds were hit with an energy blast, courtesy of Vegeta, and hit the tiled marble floor with a dead thud. Vegeta stomped over to the girl, who he noticed had unusual aqua colored hair. He looked at it for only a second before grabbing her arm and lifting her up. When she didn't stand after a few seconds, he lifted her off the ground and carried her out the door. He heard Freiza and Zarbon laughing behind him. This was a joke! They were mocking him! This entire assignment was one big embarrassment on his part. They wanted a good laugh, so they probably accepted the stupidest assignment they could find. What a disgusting figure he had lying over his shoulder. At least she didn't try to get away. Good. She knew her place. There was one less thing she had to learn the hard way. It made his job a bit easier.
Vegeta made his way to the dungeons and opened one of the barred doors. He walked inside and tried to be gentle about rolling her off his shoulder onto the cement floor. It was cold, damp, and it held a load of bad memories, even a few familiar blood-stains on the floor, so he planned on getting out of there as fast as he was able to.
"You're just going to leave me here?" a quiet but firm voice asked. Vegeta turned to the aqua-haired girl and just nodded. Closing the barred door, the girl stood up to reveal that she was in fact, not a girl, but a young woman, about Vegeta's age. He couldn't help but notice the full shape of her. He would never admit it, but he was impressed. All that beating before, and not even a blood wound to show for it, either.
"Please don't leave me here all alone," she said, and Vegeta was repulsed by her open show of weakness. No true warrior ever showed any signs that they were afraid. Then he thought that maybe he was being a little harsh. After all, not everyone could be a Saiyan, like him, having the blood of elites run through their veins. She was just a fragile female, stuck in a dungeon.
As much as he hated doing it, he opened the barred door and turned to leave, figuring that if she didn't follow him, then she would just find her way back here and lock herself up for a few days. He hoped she wasn't that stupid, but one can only hope.
Vegeta didn't bother to see if she had followed him until a few minutes later when he arrived back at his training room. He pulled his shirt off and opened the door. He finally turned around to see that the girl had indeed followed him from the dungeons. He figured it was her turn to be impressed by the way she stared at the frame of his upper body. She may have been impressive for a female, but when it came to average males, he was well aware that he was off the charts, especially since he just pulled his baggy shirt off.
"Take a picture. It'll last longer," he spat at her, turning back to the open doorway and stepping inside. Fully realizing that she would have to come inside, he considered going back and throwing her in the dungeons anyway. No one watched him train. Even Freiza knew that he hated to have people watch him when he did what he did to himself. Although, that didn't mean Freiza didn't come and watch him. Of course he did, when he felt like pissing him off. The horrible part about it though, was that it worked every time, no matter what precautions Vegeta tried to take. This was the only circumstance where he could never stop his blood from boiling over.
"What are we doing?" the aqua-haired female asked. Vegeta was starting to get annoyed by the sound of her voice alone. Add in her tone and what she was saying, and Vegeta felt like punching a wall, because he certainly wasn't allowed to punch his own charge. As much as he wanted to, he knew that he would get a beating of his own if he did, and he never felt like giving Freiza the satisfaction of remembering how much power he had over the Saiyan Prince.
"We are not doing anything, woman. You, on the other hand, are going to leave me alone while I train. And make sure you stay out of trouble, because if you don't, I get in trouble, and if I get in trouble, you'll have to face me after I've been… punished for your actions. Plus, then you'll really be in trouble. With me; and I'm positive that that isn't something you want. Understand?"
The female just solemnly nodded her acknowledgement and understanding of what he had just told her. He seemed a bit overconfident with himself. She was just placed under Freiza's protection by her father, Dr. Briefs. He was the president of Capsule Corporation, the biggest enterprise on the planet where she came from, Earth.
This guy, Vegeta if she had heard correctly, was starting to dance on her nerves, and if she wasn't careful, she'd slip up, and her act would be blown. Her father had told her to act modest and innocent. In her point of view, she didn't need to act these things, but she did as her father asked because he usually knew best. She had overheard her mother say that Freiza wasn't the great man everyone made him out to be, and she understood what she had meant ever since she got here. She was abused by every guard she came across, not to mention physically assaulted by the "great man" himself, that bastard. But she had done as her father asked, and went along with everything that had happened to her since she got here. And this guy, Vegeta, was the only person here who noticed her face instead of… well, everything else. He protected her from those guards back in the other room, and, even if he was being an asshole about it, he brought her along with him. So, she would agree with whatever he told her to do, as long as it wasn't something ridiculous. After all, that was what a modest and innocent person would do, wasn't it?
"Good. Now go play with something. You'll be doing me a favor if you went down that hallway," he added, pointing to the left. The female nodded again and then turned to walk in the direction she was instructed to.
Vegeta wondered if she was going to be alright by herself. Not that he cared about her. He just didn't need to be interrupted while he was training again if he was to keep his temper under control. Plus, the guards did seem to take an interest in her. In her figure, that is, and if a low class guard got him in trouble, hell would feel like heaven compared to the ending he would give him.
Entering the training room and shutting the doors behind him, he still couldn't stop worrying about what would happen to the aqua-haired female. She was only a… actually, he didn't even know what species she was. Not that he cared. He really couldn't give two shits about her welfare, her personality, her whatever. She was only his charge. Nothing more. Something less.
It wasn't even that big of a deal. If only the guards would leave her alone for a few hours. That was all he would need to train. Then he'd find her a place to sleep… the dungeon was looking better and better by the second. Then, he thought about when he was given this assignment. Freiza had told him that the female was his charge, and sat there watching her get kicked around. Was that what his assignment really was? Was Freiza trying to have him punished? Was his intent to have him fail at this, just so Freiza could laugh at him as Zarbon tore his arms off or something? Then he remembered what Freiza had told him: "I just told that this girl is your charge. What are you doing just standing there? Those fools are going to get you in big trouble with me if you continue to let her get hurt like that."
Damn, Vegeta thought, opening the training room doors and racing down the way he had instructed the female to go. His instincts had been dead on. When he rounded the second corner, there she was, huddled up against the wall, a guard over her, snickering, deciding what to do with her. Not if I have anything to say about it, Vegeta thought, charging at him, Sorry Freiza, but this isn't your lucky day, and it never will be.
The guard's head was severed and rolling across the hallway in no time at all. Vegeta noticed the female's face go white.
"Get up," he told her.
"T-Thank you."
"I thought I told you to get up, not thank me. I didn't do it for you anyway. If it wasn't my job to keep you from being raped by that idiot, I might have actually helped him do it. So get up!" This statement made the female's face go even whiter. Vegeta sighed. She still hadn't gotten up yet, and he certainly wasn't helping her do that. If she couldn't even stand up, he would rather be punished.
"I was just thanking you!" the female backfired, her entire expression and attitude changing, taking Vegeta by surprise, although he would never show it. The female covered her mouth with both hands, then muffled, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that!"
"Bipolar much?" Vegeta mumbled, and the female breathed, happy he didn't catch on to her acting scheme. If he knew, he was bound to tell Freiza, since he was one of his henchmen, wasn't he? Of course he was. And if Freiza found out, he was bound to tell her father. She didn't even know why her father had told her to act different. He only said it was for her safety. Why she couldn't act normal was a mystery to her, and why acting normal would jeopardize her safety was an even bigger mystery. She figured the answers would come eventually. Besides, modest and innocent girls didn't snoop around trying to find out all the answers. If she was supposed to know, someone would have told her by now.
"I'm so sorry," she repeated, finally standing up. Vegeta thanked the non-existent gods.
"Like I said. Don't thank me. I didn't do it for you. I couldn't care any less about what happens to you. It's just that something will happen to me if I let something happen to you. It's really just one big inconvenience." Now he couldn't even train because the guards were after his charge. Well, there was a small room for the medical supplies attached to the training room. He wondered if he could get the female to stay in there for a few hours. It was worth a shot.
"Follow me," he said, after a bit of thinking. She was going to stay in that room whether she liked it or not. He turned on his heel and headed back the way he came, listening to make sure the female was following him. This was going to be the biggest nuisance of an assignment he had ever had. Or, at least, that's what he believed at the time…
