Chapter 10
It was a slow day for the deck crew of Planet Frieza 35. No new teams had come onto the planet for several days now and several members of the maintenance crew were passing the time by playing cards with each other. Three aliens snarled as the head engineer snickered as he pulled the pile of credits over to his small purple body.
"It looks like I win again boys. Better luck next time huh," said the head engineer as he stuffed the credits into his armor and then walked away from the small table they had set up earlier on one of the cushioned landing pads. Sure, it wasn't technically safe, but there were no scheduled landings today and those things were the most comfortable places on the station. The head engineer hopped off of the pad and then headed towards the control panel. As he was walking though, he heard a loud bang and then he looked up to see four space pods racing towards the landing deck.
"Holy Shi…" he heard someone screaming as the crew members scrambled to get off of the landing pads as the pods closed in on them. The crew members managed jump off the pad just before one of the pods crashed down into the pad completely obliterating the table and cards that had been left forgotten on the pad.
"What kind of ignorant ass-holes would land without even informing us of their arrival!" yelled the engineer as he watched his men scramble for safety. Several of the technicians had received burns from the pod's fiery landing because they were so close to the landing pads. The head engineer watched as one of the pods opened up and revealed a huge man with a small patch of hair stepping out of the pod.
"Oh Kami, not these guys," groaned the engineer as he recognized the giant man as one of the members of the saiyan squad. They had been absent for over a year now, having been sent on several dangerous missions back to back, but now it seemed that they had completed their mission and were back to make his life miserable.
The giant saiyan raced over to another one of the pods and smashed his hand into the door. The purple engineer cried out and then ran over to where the saiyan was pulling the door to the pod off with his arm. With one enormous effort, the giant saiyan yanked the door off of its hinges and pulled it back. The door was still attached to his muscular arm and as his arm flung back, the door hit a nearby technician in the face and sent the small alien flying down the landing dock. The saiyan then pulled the door off of his arm and then scooped another much smaller saiyan, which the head engineer recognized as Prince Vegeta, and then dashed, towards the medical bay.
The engineer looked at the ruined pod in horror. Didn't these saiyans know how much money those things cost! Not too mention the fact that it takes forever to make a new one.
"Damn saiyans," he mumbled as he looked over to the other two pods. Luckily, these two hadn't been completely destroyed and the occupants were already outside of the pods. The long haired saiyan was helping a younger saiyan walk towards the medical bay. As they passed the engineer, he realized that the younger one was barely conscious and that the long haired one was almost dragging him to the medical bay.
"Those damn saiyans are always almost killing themselves," he mumbled as he went back to his control panel to begin to clean up the mess the saiyans had just made.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Nappa leaned against one of the empty tanks inside of the medical bay of the docking station as one of the doctors informed him of Vegeta and Siruis's conditions. Both of the young saiyans had been severely injured during the first day on Planet Zigon, and the return trip back to Frieza 35 had not given the young saiyans adequate time to heal from their wounds. The flame haired prince was in critical condition, the only reason he was still alive was because Nappa had managed to stop the bleeding before they had left the planet. Sirius was not as banging up, and the medics informed him that it would only take a few hours for him to be back at full strength.
As soon as the medic left the saiyans alone, Nappa snarled and banged his fist against the rejuvenation tank he had been leaning against, causing it to crack. Raditz turned his head to look over at the older saiyan and watched as the giant solider put his head and the surface of the cracked tank and sighed.
"You did as much as you could Nappa," said the younger saiyan. "Hell, we cleared the rest of that planet in record time because you wanted to get Vegeta inside of one of these tanks."
"Still wasn't fast enough to keep him from almost dying." The mammoth sized saiyan pulled his fist back and completely shattered the tank in front of him. The giant ignored the shards of glass that were lodged in his fist as he took a seat on the bench in front of Vegeta's tank. The young prince had a blank emotionless expression on his face as he floated in the green liquid. It was the calmest and most peaceful Nappa had seen Vegeta in almost a year and a half. It was a shame the only time the prince had any peace of mind was when he was on death's doorstep.
Walking over to stand next to his giant companion, Raditz crossed his arms as he too faced towards the saiyan prince. "No, you are the reason he still is alive. You're the one that bandaged him up to make sure he didn't bleed to death. You're the one that gave him some of your own energy after he used all that energy on his Galick Gun to make sure he didn't die then and there. You always think of how you failed him when really you should think of all the things you have done for him."
Nappa turned his head slightly so that he could see the long haired saiyan, but didn't respond to his encouragement. The younger saiyan leaned against the wall and continued to look at the floating body of the saiyan prince. "You beat yourself up to much Nappa. You keep berating yourself over how you should have been able to protect him better or how you should have done this or that. It's never entered your head that you've done a better job than any other saiyan could. No one else can handle that kid's ego as well as you have. You haven't overprotected him during purges but you also haven't let him have free reign like almost every other saiyan would have. The king knew what he was doing when he picked you, so stop doubting yourself."
The room fell silent, the only sound being the humming of the rejuvenation tanks as they worked to heal the two young saiyans. The old saiyan general looked down at the white stone floor as he thought about his third-class comrades words. Deep down he knew that he had done his best at protecting Vegeta, but it still seemed to him that he should have done better. It was hard for the experienced solider to deal with the feeling of failure that he was so often feeling now that he was the prince's bodyguard. Before this position, he had never experienced failure, he had always succeeded. That's why he was named General of the entire Saiyan Army at such a young age, because he was the elite of the elite. He never lost.
Now though, he seemed to lose all the time. He was too weak. He was too weak to protect Vegeta when they went on purges. He was too weak to protect the prince from the taunts that he faced daily while they stayed on a base planet or were forced to stay on Frieza's personal ship. He was too weak to protect Vegeta from Zarbon's 'training' sessions. He was too weak to protect the young prince from the merciless beatings at the hands of the sadistic tyrant when he made a minor mistake. He was just too weak to do anything these days.
His problem was now compounded by the fact that now not only did have to take care of Vegeta and teach him the ways of the saiyan, he also had to be the mentor for the two other survivors of their once great race. As the only surviving member of the older generation of saiyans, it was now his responsibility to continue instructing them in combat and saiyan traditions. It was up to him to keep alive the saiyan culture and he wasn't sure if he would be able to do it.
Raditz snarled at the despondent saiyan beside him and pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against with his tail. The furry brown tail flicked angrily through the air as the long haired saiyan walked past the giant saiyan and headed towards the door. "Give me a call when you're not so sentimental." The younger saiyan walked out of the medical bay shaking his head. He could not believe that Nappa was so upset by Vegeta being hurt. Raditz himself didn't really care all that much about the prince's injuries. He seemed to be a tough kid and it wasn't like he was dying or anything so what was Nappa so upset about.
The long haired saiyan shrugged as he continued to walk towards the entrance of the docking station. He had tried to console the older saiyan, an action that had made of feel slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't like cheering someone up was a big part of a saiyan warrior's job description; in fact it was frowned upon. During Combat School, any saiyan that pouted or complained was immediately punished. If you failed, you dealt with it, alone. You were shunned if you failed a mission or if you were beaten by an inferior opponent, no one helped you feel better.
However, Nappa was saying that he had failed at something Raditz thought he was succeeding at. He didn't know how the older saiyan dealt with the prince for so long but Raditz knew that he couldn't do half as good of a job as Nappa had done for the past two years. The giant saiyan only needed to hear that he was doing a good job before he could believe it.
Shaking his head, Raditz tried to dispel all thoughts of Nappa's issues as he felt a cool breeze brush across his face. The teenager took a deep breath and as he exhaled he remembered how good it felt to finally feel peaceful. That string of missions had been his first as a true saiyan warrior, and they had pushed him to brink of both his physical and mental capacities. He had known what to expect, but the difficulty of the missions had still caught him off guard and at times he had felt helpless as the more powerful warriors battled above him. The only other purge he had been on was the solo mission before the destruction of Vegeta-sei and he had not encountered such powerful warriors on that mission as he had in the past year.
The mission on Planet Amazonia had been extremely taxing on his mind. It had been a heavy blow to his pride when he had realized that almost everything on the planet was equal to or greater than his own strength. Not only had been difficult for his mind to deal with the stress of always wondering of the next battle they engaged in would be his last, but he suffered from over a dozen serious injuries during their time on the jungle planet. His body had been able to heal itself during the long trip to Planet Zigon, but it had frightened immensely to be so battered and broken after a mission. He wondered if this was what his father had to deal with when he was just a rookie soldier fresh out of Combat School.
Raditz's was distracted from his thoughts when a wave of the smell of freshly baked bread washed over him. He looked around and realized that he had wandered into the market district of the city. On each side of him numerous stores and restaurants covered landscape and the place was blazing with light from the signs that flashed above the saiyan's head. There were many soldiers bustling in and out of the various buildings and Raditz was surprised by the sheer numbers he saw. Last time he had been on this base planet it had been fairly empty, but now it seemed like most of the troops were on leave.
As he walked down the streets in the market district, Raditz noticed that he was turning a lot of heads. And more often than not, they were loathing faces that were turned his way. His tail twitched a bit as it seemed he could feel the hatred coming of the soldiers that were all around him. It seemed like waves of malice were washing over him and he couldn't shake the sense of forbidding that had settled over him.
To escape the crowded streets, the teenage saiyan ducked into one of the stores to his right. As soon as the door slid shut behind him, cutting off the almost overwhelming sound of the crowded streets outside. The long haired saiyan exhaled as his paranoia began to subside and he began to examine the store he had entered. The store was one gigantic room, with black marble floor running across the ground. The walls were midnight black, with streaks of hot pink running across it in a flowery, calligraphic type of fashion. Intrigued by the outlandish design, Raditz walked a little further into the store but froze when he finally saw one of the holographic models that was up for display. The holograph was of a beautiful red skinned woman who was dressed in tight, black lingerie, which showed off her amazing curves.
Blood rushed to his face as Raditz realized that he had stepped inside of a woman's lingerie store. He quickly turned his body and began to fly towards the door. Once he was safely outside of the exotic store, he walked as fast as he could away from the store. His cheeks were flushed from embarrassment as he walked down the crowded street. He couldn't believe that he had just walked into a woman's shop. Not that he didn't enjoy the hologram, but he knew that if the other saiyans ever found out that he would never live down the moment.
As the embarrassed saiyan walked down the road, he felt someone's shoulder knock onto him causing the long haired saiyan to lose his balance. Raditz fell into the wall of one of the shops and felt as his back muscles strained from the unexpected. The long haired saiyan whipped his head around to face however had so blatantly "bumped" into him. All he knew was that the fool would learn to regret messing with a saiyan.
What Raditz saw was an average height soldier with red leathery skin. The man's head was huge, with his cranium seemingly being far too large to match his gaunt face. The red alien wore a smug smirk on his face as he eyed the teenage saiyan who was propped up against the wall.
"Watch were your going monkey," snidely said the soldier as he watched with crossed arms as Raditz regained his footing and got straight into the insulters face. With their faces only inches apart, the two soldiers glared at each other.
"So it seems you have a death wish, I would be happy to help with that," said Raditz angrily. He clenched his fist as adrenaline began to pump throughout his body as it prepared itself for a fight.
"Maybe you shouldn't be so clumsily, but wait I forgot. Monkeys are too stupid to even walk down the road without bumping into something."
"How about I show you what it's like to be in a saiyan's way. That way I want have to hear your stupid ass talk anymore."
"Oh I would love for you to try. I would relish in the opportunity to show you stupid monkeys how weak you really are." The alien looked over Raditz's shoulder and then nodded his head in the direction of a small alley. "How about over there, it seems as good a place as any to put you in your place."
Raditz snarled and then responded, "Fine, but don't expect to be walking back out of that alley anytime soon." The alien just laughed and then walked past Raditz, bumping into the long haired saiyan again as he made his way to the alley. The long haired saiyan was fuming and angrily stomped behind the red alien as the pair entered into the dank alleyway.
The scent of rotting garbage assailed Raditz's sensitive nose and he became nauseous just from the rank smell. His senses dulled slightly because of the sickening smell, Raditz turned to face his opponent who had his red leathery arms crossed.
The man snickered as he noticed Raditz's sickened face. "What's wrong mighty saiyan? Can't deal with the smell of a little garbage?"
The long haired saiyan snarled at the man he was beginning to hate. "Enough talking, are we going to fight or not?"
"No." Raditz looked at his opponent with a puzzled expression. "I'll be beating you senseless like the ape you are, while you just take it."
The long haired saiyan began to open his mouth, but he was cut off when he felt a sudden sharp pain in the small of his back. He started to turn around, but he was met by a fist to the face and he began to reel backwards. As he tried to recover, he felt two quick strikes connect to the back of his knees and Raditz crumpled to the ground. The teenager fell into a mud puddle and a side of his face was submerged in the brown gunk. Before he could even try to push himself up, Raditz felt two arms wrapped underneath his armpits and the saiyan was dragged out of the mud with his back elevated and his legs dragged behind the rest of his body. He could feel the rough and jagged road scrapping his legs as the drug limply behind him.
The teenage saiyan felt a rough hand grab his chin, forcing him to look up at his attacker. He found that he was face to face with the red alien that he had entered the alley with, but now there were two more soldiers standing behind him with dumb grins on their ugly faces. Looking to other side, Raditz saw that two other men were dragging him and holding him up.
"Looks like we've bagged ourselves a monkey, aye Karmo," said one of the aliens that held the debilitated saiyan by the arms.
"Yes, it looks like we have," said the red skinned soldier who was holding Raditz's chin. The man named Karmo let go of the Raditz's chin and let it slump against his chest. Raditz just looked down at the filthy road, berating himself for allowing this ambush to happen.
"Now what should we do with the stupid ape now that we have him at our mercy," pondered Karmo as he began to pace in front of Raditz's limp body. "I think we should train it do some tricks for us. Might as well get some amusement out of the savage. What do you say monkey? Want to learn some new tricks."
"Fuck you."
The red alien looked down at the downcast saiyan with amusement. In the blink of an eye he had whipped his body around and delivered a harsh tornado kick to the side of the saiyan's head, causing it the jerk violently upon impact. The saiyan merely let his head fall back down to hit against his chest after he could think straight again.
"I'm sorry I couldn't understand what you said monkey? You see I don't speak Ape, so you'll have to talk civilized if you want to be heard."
The long haired saiyan lifted his bloody face up off of his chest and looked Karmo directly in his dark brown eyes. "I said you could go fuck yourself, good sir." The teenager smirked when he saw a gleam of anger pass through the rust red alien's eyes. The leader of the band of aliens' expressions changed to one of almost uncontrollable rage for an instant but then it returned to its original smugness.
"Tsk, Tsk, that mouth of yours will get you into trouble monkey. I think you need to be punished for your rudeness. Now let's see…" the alien began to look over his helpless prey until his eyes finally fell on the brown furry object wrapped around Raditz's tail. "That should do," he commented as he walked around the restrained saiyan until he was directly behind him. He gave a sadistic smile as bent down snatched the furry appendage and gave it a hard pull.
All of Raditz's remaining strength instantly left his body as he felt his tail being violently yanked, and he felt that he could no longer even support the weight of his body. Surprised by the saiyan turning into 100% dead weight, the two aliens that had been restraining him dropped him onto the muddy street. The teenage saiyan was shaking violently as he reached forward with one hand, digging it into the mud as he tried to crawl away from the indescribable pain he was now in.
The red alien raised his eyes in surprise; he had not suspected that this torture tactic would be so effective. "So it seems the mighty saiyans have a weakness after all." The cruel solider gave the tail another pull, causing another wave of pain to wash over the powerless saiyan. Raditz could not even cry out in pain because of all of the energy in his body had been stolen from him by the alien who now held his tail.
"You pathetic coward," snarled Raditz as he clenched his fist. His fingernails dug so hard into his hand that streams of blood began to drip down his fist as he tried to get his body to focus on anything besides the pain coming from his most valuable limb.
"What was that monkey?" said Karmo as he began to drag the long haired saiyan through the various mud puddles dotting the surface of the filthy alleyway. The teenage saiyan closed his eyes as his face was dragged through the mucky liquid. His head bobbed up and down as it constantly was ricocheting off of the ground as he was dragged by the red alien. Finally, after dragging the saiyan through every mud puddle in the alley, Karmo threw the helpless saiyan into a wall. The saiyan's buddy contorted violently as it made impact and Raditz crumpled in front of the wall that now possessed a saiyan size dent.
The band of aliens laughed as they stood over the beaten and broken saiyan. His once majestic armor was now cracked and ruined, his long dark hair was now coated in slime and mud, his body was covered in cuts and bruises that now burnt from having dirty water and muck smeared in and on them, and his pride was completely shattered.
"Look at the sight before you men and remember it well. One of the mighty saiyans has been reduced to lying in the fetal position in the gutter. No wonder their entire planet was destroyed by a mere asteroid. Their race is completely helpless! They should be put in zoos like the monkeys they are, for their own protection of not for anything else." The band roared with laughter again while Raditz looked up that them with burning hatred in his eyes.
"Now I think we should finish this ape off," said Karmo as he raised one of his leathery hands up and pointed it down at the mangled body that lay at his feet. "Time to send him to meet the rest of his pathetic race in the next dimension." A red orb of energy began to form in the palm of his outstretched hand as Karmo began to gather the energy necessary to finish off the teenage saiyan for good.
As he watched red orb grow, Raditz noticed that his vision was beginning to be obscured by thin red lines. He reached up with his bloodied hand and felt warm liquid and realized that blood was streaming down from the top of his head and was now streaming down his face. As he brought his hand down and looked at the fresh blood that was over the caked blood from when he had cut his own hands earlier, he noticed that he felt very light headed and his eyes began to flutter violently as his skull hit the ground.
As he was slipping into unconsciousness, Raditz raised his eyes up and the last thing he saw was that red orb of energy that was trained down on him. His eyelids shut and as he fell into blackness, he could hear the humming of the energy as it was primed to fire.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Nappa still had his head in his hands when he heard the beeping of one of the rejuvenation tanks. The giant saiyan looked up to see a flashing green light on the dashboard that controlled the tank that Sirius was inside of. The young saiyan was awake and gave the older saiyan a wink as the medics rushed in and began the process of removing the green liquid inside of the tank. It did not take long for the process to be completed and the second class saiyan stepped out of the tank and shook his hair, sending droplets of liquid scattering across the room. He and Vegeta had not been taken out of their armor because of the seriousness of their injuries so Sirius still adorned his red and black saiyan armor.
"Good to see you're not completely broken yet kid," said Nappa as he stood up and walked over to his younger comrade. He put one of his massive paws on Sirius's shoulders and gave it a good squeeze. The younger saiyan winced from the slight pain he felt as his giant mentor pushed down on the shoulder that had been dislocated during the fighting on Planet Zigon. Nappa chuckled as he saw the discomfort in the younger saiyan. He couldn't be too soft on him after all.
"Yeah, and if gotten stronger from those missions, I think I may be able to even take you now, so you better watch your back General Nappa." The giant saiyan growled in warning as Sirius moved away from him laughing. As he walked around, he noticed the absence of a certain long haired saiyan. "Hey where is Raditz at? I thought he was supposed to stay with you."
The veteran let out another growl of discontent as he sat back down on the bench. "The weakling stormed out of here after you and Vegeta were placed in the rejuvenation tanks. He was being very emotional, I think it may have to do with the fact that he has gone through the physical changes of puberty but not the emotional and mental aspects of it yet. So I guess I'll give him a pass on being a weakling this time, but if he goes all psychologist on me again I'm going to give him a beating he'll never forget." Sirius just shrugged as he sat on the other side of the bench. The younger saiyan was about to ask another question when he heard the sound of door opening.
The pair of saiyans turned their heads to look over to the entrance of the medical bay to see Zarbon, Frieza's right hand man, standing in the doorway. The light blue skinned alien walked inside with his dark green hair swaying behind him in the form of the ponytail he always kept it in. Nappa was surprised to see the elegant man; he had thought that Frieza and his top men were on another planet when they had landed. Of course, he hadn't exactly checked since he had been so worried about getting Vegeta to the nearest rejuvenation tank as soon as possible.
Zarbon glanced over to the pair of saiyans and then walked over to where the medics were now monitoring Vegeta. He looked over the soldier of a purple alien and then asked, "So how is our favorite monkey prince?" Both of the saiyans scowled as the heard the common insult to their race.
"His vitals are finally stable, but he won't be fully recovered for at least another day. He suffered serious injuries, internal and external."
"So he's stable?" The medic nodded his head. "Good I went him out of there in one minute."
"Why?" Zarbon turned his head to look over at Nappa who was now standing with an angry expression aimed straight towards him. "Can't you see he needs to heal? They said he wouldn't be recovered for at least another day!"
Ignoring the giant saiyan, Zarbon turned back to the medic and put his hand on the purple alien's shoulder. "Get him out of the tank, Frieza's orders." The medic nodded and he gave the purple alien another clamp on the shoulder and then walked out of the medical bay.
Furious, Nappa rushed after the blue skinned alien and found that he was leaning against the side of one of the walls right outside of the doorway. "What does Frieza want with Vegeta and why can't it wait until after he's done healing?" barraged the giant saiyan.
The dark haired alien just raised his hand up and Nappa fell silent. Even though he couldn't stand Zarbon, he knew he was no match for the elite soldier and thus could not defy him. "Lord Frieza requires your squad's presence immediately. All of you are too follow me as soon as Prince Vegeta is out of the tank, and as long as he isn't dead or dying, he is required to attend your audience with Lord Frieza. The medic stated that Vegeta's vitals were stable, which means he will be coming with us." Zarbon smirked as he saw the saiyan's anger rising.
Nappa snorted in frustration and he turned away from the light skinned alien and raised his hand to use his scouter to call Raditz. "Raditz come in." The veteran paused; waiting for a response but when he did not receive one he frowned and tried again.
"Raditz respond." All he heard was an eerie silence.
"Weakling, stop playing games! You need to report back to the medical bay immediately." Nappa snarled when all he got back as a response was that same unnatural silence. It almost seemed like the scouter was on and ready to respond, but Nappa could hear nothing coming from the other end.
"Having trouble contacting one of your squad members are we. Tsk, Lord Frieza will not be happy that you can't even keep up with all of your monkeys Nappa." Nappa could barely control the rage that was building up inside of him. Every bone in his body was telling him to just turn around and dock the smug alien behind him, but he knew that would lead to fatal consequences. He was distracted though when he heard the door slide open and Sirius and a very faint Vegeta walked out. The young prince looked like he was about to collapse any moment now and Nappa knew he was not well when the prince did not push Sirius away when he wrapped Vegeta's arm around his shoulder; helping support the prince's weight.
Zarbon nodded when he saw the two younger saiyans emerge from the medical bay. "Good, now we can go."
"No we can't," said Nappa. "We have to wait for Raditz. You said Frieza wanted all of us to attend this meeting."
The light skinned alien just smirked. "I know what Lord Frieza said. I also know that he said for us to go to him immediately after Vegeta got out of the tank, and you know I would never disobey a direct order from Lord Frieza." Zarbon just shot the oldest saiyan a sadistic smile as he turned on his heel and headed towards Lord Frieza's throne room. The three saiyans just followed behind him in silence, and all three of them had the same knot of fear in their stomachs as they followed Frieza's right hand man.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for not getting this chapter up as soon as promised but I had some chapter problems and I've been pretty busy lately with school and applying to colleges. Anyway hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter much quicker seeing as how this one was becoming to long so I spilt it in half. Let me know what you think of the new chapter, the whole story, or just give me some ideas or suggestions in a review. Again, thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it.