Chapter Three: Death Sentence

One month before the Great Desertion

Nappa went down first, and soon Raditz was out for the count, leaving Vegeta alone against the rounds of energy volleys coming at random from the surgically white walls. There was no way for him to know when they would come or how many or from where coming, and so he crouched low on the floor, listening for the little hiss which signaled the oncoming volleys of sharply directed ki aimed at the saiyan.

They had been going at it for weeks now, and every day it was increasingly more difficult to avoid getting hit by the blasts, and even more so, coming out of the training room unharmed. Whatever the woman had invented was damn effective; it was concentrated ki energy which acted just like any of his own attacks, as effective and powerful as a full on power charge against an enemy.

Vegeta could feel as sweat dripped down his temple and side of his face, pooling at his chin. Absentmindedly, he whipped away the sweat, and that's when the volley's started again, aimed directly at his head, one after the other.

He ducked, rolled stood but was too slow to avoid the unexpected blast to his back, making him wince as he turned to avoid the next one. He jumped back, narrowly missing another blast as he crouched low again. In reality the exercise would not be as challenging if it weren't for the controlled gravity in the room. It was up to 500 times the normal gravity on any planet he'd ever visited, including his own. It made him sluggish, unable to move as quickly as he'd like. He was blindsided by a blast, and all the sudden the volleys were on him, coming from all directions.

He could hear himself scream as he tried to charge himself with enough power to deflect the blasts, but he just simply didn't have enough energy in him. The final hit came directly to the back of his head, and all the sudden, the world around him faded into darkness.


"Enough!" Bulma screamed as she tried to shove Zarbon away from the control panels. He had jacked up the power to maximum and cranked up the gravity much higher than the saiyans were used to, up to 800G's.

"Freeza is becoming impatient, my dear, I am simply hurrying the process along." He did not budge, and instead smirked as he pressed the computer for another round of blasts directed at the only saiyan standing.

"You are messing up my data! Don't you understand? I'm making tests here….there's a methodology involved, and you are screwing up my test results!" Bulma knew this had nothing to do with her 'tests', but with keeping the saiyans alive. And so when Zarbon continued to press at the panel, she took matters into her own hands and grabbed the first completed ki gun prototype, aiming squarely at the back of the Zarbon's head and fired. The blast knocked Zarbon forward, but it also did something completely unintended…

The smell of synched hair reached her nostrils before she could comprehend what she'd done. The ki blast at such closed proximity had incinerated half of Zarbon's pony tail…

His hand come up slowly to the back of his head, and time itself stood still for Bulma, her heart beat increasing tenfold and she could feel the cold sweat of fear invade her body.

I'm dead.

She knew, of all the things she could have done to her most hated adversary, blasting his main, his pride and joy, the source of all his arrogance and pride, was the surest way to get killed. Not just killed, she knew…tortured…made to suffer a slow, agonizing death filled with excruciating pain.

He turned around, and Bulma could see it in his eyes. He planned to kill her, and nothing she could say would stop him. Except…

She held the gun up again, aiming for his head.

"I will blast the rest of you pretty green hair if you come any closer." She warned, and tried to keep her voice leveled when she spoke.

He stood in silence, never taking his eyes off of her, unmoving. After what seemed like a lifetime to Bulma, the computer chirped behind Zarbon, signaling the exercise was over and that the last saiyan was out, unconscious. His cold stare moved away from her to look at the computer monitors. He tapped at the computer a couple of times, then moved away from the terminal, away from Bulma and towards the door. He paused briefly in front of it, and she could see him clenching his fist, but he said nothing and finally excited the control room.

Bulma dropped down to the floor in a heap, grasping for air. She was nauseous, short of breath and she could see dark spots invade her vision. She was having a panic attack, she knew, but couldn't really help as she started sobbing, uncaring of how cold the floor felt underneath her.

After all, she'd just signed her own death sentence.


Vegeta could hear muffled voices at first, his eyes were still closed and he had no energy to open them. Something touched his arm, and then suddenly, all his senses came back at once. He could hear sharply and open his eyes. The overhead lights were bright, but his pupils adjusted almost immediately. His body did not hurt as much as he was expecting, so he knew instantly he'd receive a shot from the woman. Like the re-gen tank, she'd used similar technology to create a hand held devise which administered the healing components of the tank, directly into the bloodstream. It was not as effective as staying an entire day in the tank, but it was a hell of a lot faster.

He sat up and stretched his shoulder muscles, cracking his head from side to side as if testing out his muscles there too.

The woman was hovering over Nappa now, asking him questions and probing him with her equipment. There was a look of concern on her face, though Vegeta knew she was trying to hide it. He could also smell something else…smoke of some sort, like burnt hair.

He didn't comment on it and instead stood up, ready to be gone from the white room.

"Vegeta, wait." The woman excused herself from Nappa's side and led Vegeta out into the control room, away from both Radditz and Nappa line of sight. The smell of burnt hair was worse in the control room, and he could now see the remnants of a green ponytail…

He arched a questioning brow at the woman, but she shook her head, as though she didn't want to talk about it. She looked frightened, and he could smell fear coming from her.

"Listen, I think Nappa has a heart condition. It's deteriorating…unlike you and Raditz, his ki levels are lowering instead of rising. I'm afraid he won't be able to take much more of this…"

"Well then, I suppose you could stop using us as your guinea pigs for your stupid experiments. We have much better things to do than be on board this space can. It's truly a waste of my time." He was overly spiteful to the woman, but if she was so 'worried' for his comrade, why experiment on them, then?

"You know it's not up to me." She crossed her arms one over the other, as if trying to keep herself warm. She was jittery, her eyes scanning the room, unable to stay focused in any particular spot.

"What did you do, woman?" Vegeta didn't know why he cared to ask, but her behavior was off-putting, as though he never expected her to show fear. It bothered him that she did.

"I synched Zarbon's hair." She confessed, and then tears swelled her eyes. She looked away from Vegeta, and his reaction was more surprising to him than it was to her.

He laughed. It was a low, deep rumble from within his chest. She stared at him, with those impossibly blue eyes, still filled with tears. They did not spill, though, and he knew she was fighting them.

"You better pray Freeza still likes you." It was the only thing that could save her now. Otherwise, he knew she was dead. And surprisingly, the thought of the woman being killed by Zarbon bothered him. It bothered him quite a lot….

"I need a favor from you." She stated simply, and gave him a small plastic disk, which he took despite not really wanting anything to do with the woman and her plans. It was easy to see she was up to something, but he wanted to believe he didn't care for it; for her tests, or Zarbon's persisting surveillance, nor Freeza's Empire, and how he plans to take over the rest of the known galaxy…

He wanted to be as far away from her as possible, and yet….her smell, her hair, her eyes, her soft skin…he could still feel her, taste her…he could recall being inside her, tasting her mouth...smelling her scent…her true scent.

"When Zarbon kills me. Could you make sure the disk is destroyed?" There was no doubt in her voice, no if's, just the simple truth. He would kill her; it was a matter of when now.


Thank you for all the reviews! This one is a little on the shorter side, so please expect the next chapter soon. R&R!