You'll all probably recognize this chapter; I didn't change it too much (if I remember correctly). I'm currently finishing up chapter ten and starting chapter eleven, which is when they all leave for Namek. Things are looking a lot more angsty and in character, so yay for me!
UPDATE 08/11/2010: This chapter has been edited.
Chapter Four
Another
Each man stalked through the darkness quietly, making their way to the small house in the clearing of the forest. The guards' scouters received a strong reading from this humble abode, and they were ready for a fight. But nothing came their way except silence and uneasiness.
"Anything yet?" one scout mumbled into his headset.
"Negative."
A pause.
"Well, what now?"
"We go inside. We're not supposed to leave anyone alive, remember?" The attempt at humor, however poor, lightened the mood somewhat. Truth be told, both soldiers could sense something bad was coming their way.
The light of the full moon guided them to the threshold. The door opened noiselessly, revealing a dark room; incidentally, the only room in this small cottage. A loud noise caused both soldiers to jump, but they soon realized that the occupant was snoring in his sleep.
"This must be the power we're picking up on," one whispered. He stared down at the reposing figure of an old man.
"I guess. You can have the honors." As the older soldier raised his hand to kill the man, a piercing cry was heard. It was a baby. Quickly, both soldiers hid as the wails grew louder. Each man braced themselves defensively, waiting for the old man to awaken.
He never did. He kept right on snoring, oblivious to the earsplitting cries.
"Shit," the more experienced scout mumbled. "We need to get that kid to be quiet. If he wakes up the old man, we're dead."
"Right. I'll kill him first and get him out of the way." The younger man stealthily crawled to the source of the sound, a small cradle. He bent down to smother the kid. "Ow! What the hell?"
"What's wrong?"
"He bit me!"
The older soldier sighed, but he couldn't help smiling to himself. "Ooh, poor Kino was attacked by a toddler. How horrible…. I guess the old man will have to go first." Still sniggering, he turned to the old man and blew his head off. The explosion was deafening. Chunks of the wooden frame of the bed flew in every direction, along with bloodied feathers and gore. A bit splattered on the soldier, but he was used to it.
There was a shout and the elderly soldier saw the toddler disappear out the door, followed by the younger man. Sighing, the other soldier leisurely came behind. "What a dolt," he said to himself. "Can't even keep track of a human child." He heard some more yelling in the woods.
"Wait!" the young soldier called after the fleeing child. "Get back here!" He chased him down into a clearing. "That's right, stop running…." Slowing to a halt, he noticed the child was staring at something, almost in reverence and—if possible at such a young age—wholehearted longing. Curiously, he followed his gaze to the full moon.
"Just kill him now!" the superior officer's annoyed voice floated through the trees.
"Fine!" As the young man turned towards the child to finish the job, he froze.
The kid was easily as big as he was now and growing faster by the second. At his feet lay the pile of shredded clothes he had outgrown. A ferocious roar caused the young soldier to retreat a step. Hair was sprouting from every square inch of the child's body, covering him in a thick brown fur. "Wh-what the hell is he?" the young man finally managed to stutter.
The urgency in his question caused the older soldier to break into a run. When he saw the hideous primate transformation, he knew they were as good as dead. "He's a Saiyan! Get the hell outta there!"
It was too late. With one step of a gigantic foot, the soldier was reduced from a five foot nine humanoid to a writhing heap in the grass, barely able to take in his last shuddering breath.
Quickly, the senior officer acted. He dodged a direct blast and summoned enough ki to blow off the monster's tail, leaving the animal roaring in rage as he shrank back to his original state.
Unfortunately for the child, he was not prepared for the sudden shift in size. He came down hard on his head before the officer had a chance to react. The child was instantly knocked unconscious, a dark bruise forming on his temple from the impact. Had he been left in the woods, the child would have never made it, but fate happened to be on his side.
The older soldier knew couldn't kill the child. Not yet. Frieza would be interested to see that he hadn't succeeded in killing off every other Saiyan besides Vegeta.
He bent over and picked up the unconscious child carefully. The bruise was already swelling on the right side of the toddler's head, but other than that, the boy looked like he'd survive.
Without a backwards glance at his fallen comrade, the soldier rushed off to show Frieza the last earthling—a Saiyan warrior.
The royal chambers were at the head of the ship, cloaked in the artificial light from the ceiling. Large purple drapes hung down, telling guests that the alien sitting before them was, indeed, the Lord of the Universe. Frieza himself sat in a large marble throne etched with ancient symbols of peace, power and unity.
Inhaling deeply and steeling himself for the conversation, the captain stepped forward and bowed deeply. "Lord Frieza." In his arms, he held the unconscious child that had transformed only moments before.
"What do you want now, Aenuh?" The captain accepted this as an invitation and stepped forward.
"My Lord, I'm here to report the death of the last human on earth."
"Very good. You are dismissed."
"Master Frieza, there are a few more things…."
Frieza sighed and swirled his glass, avidly watching the wine perfectly mirror the lighting on the ship. "What more could there be?"
"Well Sir, Kino was killed during the mission."
"Hmm?" Frieza began to look a little more interested in the conversation. "Kino was one of the stronger foot soldiers. How could he be killed by an earthling?"
"That leads me to my next point, Lord Frieza. When Kino and I went to kill the last human, we found a child."
"What does that have—"
"A Saiyan child." Frieza simply stared as Aenuh continued. "When we were about to kill the man, this boy managed to get outside."
"There's a full moon tonight," Frieza stated blandly. "So you're saying the monkey killed Kino?"
"Yes, my Lord."
Frieza set his wineglass down and rose. "Where is this child?"
"Right here, my Lord." Aenuh set the boy down before Frieza and took a step back. "After I cut off his tail, he hit his head and hasn't woken up since."
With the heel of his foot, Frieza nudged the boy onto his back to examine him. "He's just unconscious." He was silent for a moment more. "You're dismissed, Aenuh."
"Yes, sir!" He bent down to pick up the child.
"Leave the monkey with me." Aenuh paused, casting a questioning glance in Frieza's direction. The alien continued, "You are to find the ship doctor and send him in here. I have a few questions for him." The inferior officer frowned, trying to see where this could lead, but eventually gave up.
"Thank you, my Lord," he said as he rose. A quick bow and he was in the hallway headed for the hospital wing. He didn't know what Frieza wanted from the doctor, but he didn't dare question him.
"H'limke, Frieza wishes to speak to you," Aenuh said as soon as he entered the doctor's office. He then noticed he had just walked in on another soldier's appointment. A young man was seated on the examination table, obviously angry about something.
Despite this fact, H'limke smiled at Aenuh and said, "It's perfectly fine. I'll head down in just a moment," before turning back to his patient. "Vegeta, I can't give you another food ration. That's final."
"But—"
"I don't care how much a Saiyan needs to eat. You're already can get three times the average ration. That's plenty. Now go back to your room."
The young boy growled audibly and stormed out of the room, shoving Aenuh back into the wall on his way out. H'limke sighed before turning back to the officer. "I apologize for Vegeta's behavior."
"No, it's fine." The doctor nodded, smiled, and began filing the paperwork as Aenuh continued. "I have heard about Prince Vegeta—the last Saiyan alive. Frieza would like to speak to you about that."
"Is that so?" Turning slightly to look at the foot soldier, H'limke's eyes showed slight confusion.
"Yes, sir."
When he received no further explanation, the doctor rose. "You can leave. I'll go alone."
H'limke was anxious when he arrived in the throne room. Frieza never spoke to him directly unless there was something wrong with the soldiers. His anxiety only worsened when he saw an unconscious boy lying at the foot of Frieza's throne.
"My Lord, why did you send for me?"
Frieza smirked at him and pleasantly said, "Ah, if it isn't my dear doctor." H'limke relaxed slightly, but inside he could feel something was wrong. "Come here and take a look at this boy. What do you notice?"
He stepped forward and bent over, checking the boy's vitals. "Lord, this can't be right. No human could have such a strong heartbeat when unconscious."
"Very good. I have been informed that he is not human at all."
The doctor's head snapped up. "What do you mean to tell me?"
"This boy is a Saiyan."
A long silence ensued. Finally, H'limke started, "I thought Vegeta wa—"
"It appears that we were wrong. The Saiyans commonly sent out children in space pods to destroy entire planets when they're still young. They believed that the weaker of the species needed to prove themselves by killing a planet by themselves. It is entirely possible that this one was one of those children. Given his age, if we tried to conquer the planet a few years later, there would be nothing left. Saiyans are born killers."
"Are you going to kill him?"
Frieza paused. "I could… but Saiyans do make such wonderful soldiers. I'm afraid it would be a waste to get rid of him."
"Is there something I'm supposed to do?"
Frieza smiled. "I'm so glad you asked. Take this boy and do the normal testing. Report to me his maximum power level and the sort. It's not likely that it will exceed Vegeta's, but if it's much too high to handle safely, I'll have him terminated. If not—"
"You'll keep him on as a soldier?"
"My, you catch on quickly. You've learned since then." The alien smirked as H'limke's jaw tightened. "I want those reports by 0600 tomorrow morning. Is that clear, doctor?"
"Yes, my Lord. Just one more question—what will you do in the mean time with him? Who's going to take care of him?"
Frieza paused for a moment. "Maybe we could dump the child on Vegeta. I do enjoy irony so."
Ruefully, the doctor smiled and slowly lifted the small boy into his arms. "Very well. I'll run the tests now and get the report back to you as soon as possible." He bowed deeply and took his leave, Frieza watching his retreat with a small smirk gracing his lips.
Vegeta woke up to a soft growling noise. He cocked an eye open to search the room, but found nothing suspicious. He heard the noise again, and couldn't help but smirk when he realized what it was. The little girl's stomach was growling. He tipped his chin to check on her and found her still asleep.
Quietly, he slipped from her grasp and pulled on his boots. His ration card was in the first drawer, next to her capsules, and he snatched it before padding softly out of the room. The cafeteria was just down the hallway, serving food from all corners of Frieza's conquered galaxies. Vegeta took his place in line and waited boredly for his turn.
Just then, his ears picked up an interesting bit of a nearby conversation.
"…and then the boy had transformed at the full moon…."
He froze. The speaker was further ahead in line, talking softly to his companion. Vegeta strained his heightened hearing to its fullest extent, trying to pick up on the conversation without being obvious.
"It killed one of the men," the man was saying. "The other one managed to knock it out somehow and bring it back here."
"I think I've heard about something like that," another man added. "Except it didn't transform into an ape, but some kind of cat." Vegeta's heart sank. The conversation continued, each claim wilder than the last. Vegeta, after a moment, humphed and gathered up an armful of food to take back to the room. He was angry with himself for believing them, even for a moment. No one of his kind was left, he knew that as a fact. The other two survivors had been killed before his very eyes.
There was no way another could be alive.
With that thought, he began to trek back to his room.
"Lord Frieza, I have the results," H'limke said as he stooped into a bow.
"Yes?"
"The boy retained some head trauma from the fall. He won't remember anything except basic speech and motor skills. Fortunately, he will be able to relearn a lot of what he lost, but as for now, he is ignorant of his race and status."
"Excellent." Frieza turned to look outside the ship. He and his crew had taken off earlier in the morning and now they were coasting through space, slowly making their way back to Ice-sei, his home planet. But his thoughts did not linger there. One question was still troubling him. "What of the Ape's power level?"
"The projection showed it will not exceed two thousand."
Frieza's lips twisted into a cruel smile. "Perfect." Behind him, H'limke rose.
"Should I give the boy to Vegeta now?"
"Not yet. Keep the Ape in the hospital a couple of months so he can recover fully and relearn his history, excepting my involvement." Frieza turned in his chair and H'limke was taken aback by the cold smile the alien wore. "Teach him to worship me."
"My Lord?"
"I want this little Saiyan to trust me wholeheartedly, to follow my every command without question. Maybe he could teach Vegeta a thing or two about obedience."
H'limke, too shocked to reply, simply swept into another deep bow before Frieza dismissed him.
