Chapter 14

Kakalina groaned softly as she came back into consciousness. She didn't know when she had blacked out, but assumed it had been right after she was dumped on the floor by that pink bastard. She had tried to watch Kamala's fight against the two goons, but couldn't focus on it clearly. Keeping her eyes open had been giving her a massive headache at the time. She looked around the dark room she found herself in and noticed she was chained to the wall next to Kamala who was still unconscious. How had this happened? One of the assholes had mentioned Vegeta before he had beat the shit out of her. She hissed at the memory. Had she been at full power she might have stood a chance against him, but she was already a little banged up from sparring with Kamala all morning. Now they were in some serious shit. She couldn't see a way out of this one.

'Mother, what can I do?' she thought desperately. 'How do I get us out of this?'

'I am sorry, my precious child, but this is how it must be. Please be strong for just a little longer and all shall be revealed.' A tear rolled down her cheek. So she couldn't even save Kamala's life. This was the end of their miserable existence. What had it amounted to? She had not found the Super Saiyan named Goku, she had not lived to see Freeza's end. She had not been able to keep her promise to Kamala, and even worse than that she had let her entire race down. She had not helped avenge them in any way.

"Why?" she croaked out as tears began flowing down her cheeks in earnest. "Why did you save us just so that we could die?" she yelled at the ceiling. This time there was no response, but she heard Kamala groan as she started to wake up. As she opened her eyes the fight returned to them. She began struggling against her restraints instantly.

"It's no use, Kamala. I am sorry, I have failed you," she paused as emotion washed over her. "The Goddess says that this is the end."

Kamala's eyes widen in fear. Kakalina had never seen fear in her eyes before, not once in their entire lives together and it broke her heart. "How can that be? There must be a way. We have not had our revenge yet." She started pulling at her restraints again giving it everything she had.

Suddenly, the door opened and closed softly. Kakalina looked up expecting to see the face of one of the bastards that had brought them here, but to her complete and utter surprise it was Jin's worried face looking at her.

"My Gods, it was you," he whispered. He wasted no time unlocking her restraints, quickly moving on to free Kamala. She couldn't believe her eyes. He grabbed her arm and started pulling her after him toward the door.

"How-" she started to say, but was cut off by his urgent voice.

"We don't have much time. The guard is switching and the next shift is due to start in the next 2 minutes. Come on." He opened the door a sliver and looked out. "Okay, the coast is clear come on." He moved through the door closely followed my Kakalina and Kamala. They ran up the corridor pausing at corners to make sure the coast was clear. They ducked inside what looked like a storage room and Jin closed the door behind the noiselessly. Without hesitation he moved to the back of the room and hovered up to a large vent in the ceiling. He removed it and motioned for them to get in it. Kamala went first flying up it gracefully. Kakalina looked at him with one eyebrow raised as she hover past him. He smiled and whispered, "A trick I learned from a troublemaker I used to look after." She smiled back at him and followed Kamala up the air duct. After replacing the grate he flew past them nimbly leading the way once more. Within a matter of minutes the exited the ventilation system and entered a what looked like a soldier's quarters. It only had a bed and a small bathroom attached to it in the back. Jin replaced the vent grate after them and turned to look at them both beaming.

"I can't believe it's actually you," he said. "When I saw Zarbon and Dodoria bring you on board I thought it was you, but I wasn't sure. I can't believe it."

"Where are we?" Kamala asked getting right to the heart of the problem.

Jin's expression fell a little. "You're on board one of Lord Freeza's battle cruisers. We were awaiting his return when you were brought aboard."

"Freeza!" Kakalina growled fiercely. "How did he find out about us?" She looked up at the man who had just freed her. "And why did you call him Lord?"

"Well, I work for him now," he said a little taken back by her reaction. "After you left the station I had no reason to stay there, so I left to find another line of work. I know I may not look it, but I'm pretty strong, so I started participating in tournaments for some extra cash while looking for a job. Well, at one of them I was drafted into Freeza's army." He looked at her uncertainly. "What's wrong? Do you know Freeza?"

"He is the monster that destroyed our home world and ruined our lives," Kamala growled at him. "And now you work for him? Maybe I should have killed you 6 months ago."

"Kamala, he just risked his ass to help us escape if I am not mistaken." She looked at him seriously. "Why did you help us escape?"

Jin looked at her and blushed slightly. "I guess I wanted to make up for all the years I should have been working to free you instead of keep you captive," he said looking at his boots. He turned his gaze to look at Kakalina. "Even if it leads to my death I want to try and help you be free again."

"Because you love me," she said a little harshly.

He looked at her with a hurt expression. "Yes," he said simply. "I know you will never love me in return, but that doesn't stop me from wanting only the best for you, Kakalina."

She regarded the man in front of her for a moment. She wanted to reach out and comfort him, but something inside her was fighting against that urge. Why did she feel so conflicted. She realised she had always been conflicted when she was around him. It reminded her of the way Vegeta made her feel in a way, only stronger. He smiled at her and she felt her heart speed up.

"We need to get you off the ship before Freeza returns," he said after a moment. "I have a ship in the docking bay you can use to escape, but I don't know where you can go after that. It's probably better if I don't know actually." He started moving toward the door, but Kakalina reached out and took his arm as he passed her.

"What do you mean, aren't you coming with us?" she asked a little shocked.

"No. I will stay here and try to buy you enough time to get out of range of the sensors. That way they won't be able to track you wherever you decide to go." He waited for a moment for her to let go of his arm, but she did not. "Kakalina, we need to go. Freeza will be here soon and then the guard will notice you have escaped." She slowly let her arm drop to her side and nodded. He went to the door and looked down the hall in both directions before motioning them out. "The hanger is close. It's just down the hall from the barracks."

He paused at the first corner they came to and look around it. He pulled back quickly cursing. "It's Zaron," he mouthed. Kamala growled quietly at the name. Kakalina grabbed Kamala's wrist and pulled her upward. She flattened herself against the ceiling and Kamala copied her just as Zarbon rounded the corner. The blue alien's eyes narrowed at the sight of the disheveled soldier in front of him.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you at your post? Lord Freeza is due back any minute!" he yelled at Jin.

Jin straightened and saluted him. "My apologies, sir, I am on my way to my post now."

"Where are you posted, soldier?" Zarbon drilled him.

"The docking bay, sir!" he replied.

Zarbon narrowed his eyes again. He knew the docking crew well and he had never seen this man before that he could recall, but that was the only thing he could be heading for at this end of the ship. Though something didn't seem right with the situation. The soldier's expression was calm enough, but he was starting to sweat and he was not looking Zarbon in the eye. There was definitely something going on here. As he continued to scrutinize the soldier in front of him, he caught something move in the periphery of his vision above him. As he looked in the direction of the movement something descended on him from above hitting him hard in the back of the neck. He dropped to the floor cursing. He looked up to see three figures streaking away from him down the hall toward the hanger. It was the two Saiyan bitches! How had the escaped? As he started after them he saw the soldier he had just been questioning leading the way. Dirty little traitor! He would pay for this treachery.

Zarbon caught up to them as they were entering the docking bay. Jin turned to face him yelling at Kakalina to get to the ship in the prep lane straight ahead of them. Jin stood up to Zarbon defiantly, but was no match for him at all. Zarbon blocked all of his feeble attacks bringing him down with one punch which he landed squarely on the face. As Jin fell to the ground Kakalina stopped dead in her tracks. She watched as Zarbon picked him up and held him by the throat in front of him. He squeezed breaking his neck and dropped his body to the floor.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Kakalina screamed as his body hit the floor. She saw red and instantly powered up to her maximum level in seconds fueled by more rage than she had ever felt in her life. She streaked toward the blue bastard that had just killed Jin screaming a battle cry. He looked up just in time to get punched hard in the face. She punched him again as he looked back up at her, fury and surprise in his eyes. He caught her third punch, but she kicked him in the gut instead. He winced in pain as she brought a double fisted punch down on his back sending him to the floor. She reached down and picked him up by the shirt front just to punch him to the floor again. She did this repeatedly without pause until she felt her arm being restrained. She tried to pull it away still intently focused on the bloody mess on the floor that had just killed the man she only just realised she had loved. When she still couldn't pull her arm away she looked behind her at the small horned figure smiling at her.

"That is quite a temper you have there, my dear," Freeza said smiling down at her. "But that is my first officer you are pummeling. I hope you understand why I had to restrain you."

She looked at the creature she had detested for years, her face contorting with rage. She brought her other arm around to punch it, but it caught the oncoming attack easily and held both her arms out to the sides tightly.

"That was not advisable," Freeza said still smiling serenely at her. It squeezed both of her arms slightly making her screamed in pain. It dropped both arms and looked down at her coolly as she tried in vain to pull her now broken arms into a fighting stance. It grinned harder at her reaction. "You Saiyans are such good warriors. Always trying to win, even when you know it is hopeless. You do know this fight is hopeless, don't you?" the tyrant asked her condescendingly. She growled at it throwing an off balance kick at it purely out of desperation and pride.

"Ho ho ho," the creature chortled catching her leg next to its head and quickly breaking that bone as well. Kakalina screamed again in pain and fell to the ground. That's when she saw Kamala behind her struggling to get up, too. She cursed herself. The freak must have taken her down when her attention was on Zarbon. Freeza noticed her looking at her friend and another twisted grinned graced its face. "Yes, she was quite as defenseless against me as you are. Even more so really. Shall I put her out of her misery for you?" it asked walking toward her princess calmly.

"Kamala! NO! Take your hands off of her, you monster!" she screamed from the ground struggling toward her princess. Freeza looked back at the Saiyan priestess on the ground, its eyebrows raised slightly in surprise.

"So this is the Saiyan princess that escaped me all those years ago. You know, I had sent soldiers down the surface to retrieve her before dispatching of your planet. I would have thought she'd turn out stronger," it said in a slightly disappointed tone. Kamala growled at the tyrant and swung at it one last time before the monster stabbed its arm through her heart.

"KAMALA! NOOOOOOOO!" Kakalina shrieked as the light left the princess's eyes. With all the strength she had left she flew toward the creature that had ruined her life. She threw her good leg at it, but it phased out and grabbed her by the throat.

"That is quite enough out of you," Freeza said smiling at her maliciously. "You will serve as a good reminder to my naughty, little prince. Good-bye, my dear. Enjoy the next dimension," it said as it slowly started constricting her windpipe. As the darkness slowly enveloped her, the last thing she heard was Freeza's soft laughter.