17

Gun fire. Smoke. Screams of the scared and dying filled his ears. Vegeta pushed himself off the ground, 'What's happening?' A Freeza Force mook was shot right beside him but the teen didn't flinch, he just kept moving forward with the panicked crowd. 'Vegeta!' The sound of his name drew his attention to an alleyway. 'Vegeta! Please!' 'Bulma? Bulma!' He pushed through the people to reach the dark alley. The darkness swallowed up any light that tried to seep in and even his enhanced eyes were having trouble seeing.

Cautiously entering the black void, he started to make out the shapes of two beings very close to each other. Bright red eyes pinned him where he stood as a foul cross between copper and pungent flowers filled his nose. 'Let my Woman go! You murderous lizard!' Vegeta snarled, his black hair changing to golden yellow, his teal eyes finally allowing him to see his Mate in the darkness. She was limp against her captor, her blue eyes closed in sleep. Please let it be sleep… He begged but his outward demeanor did not change. 'As you wish.' Freeza smirked.

Shoving her towards the Saiyan, Freeza cackled as he slunk into the shadows. He caught her with ease, kneeling on the ground with his Mate in his arms. Although there was not a mark on her, she was not breathing. 'Wake up Woman. Come on now, this isn't funny.' Hot tears streaked down his cheeks as reality slammed into him, 'No… BULMA!'

Vegeta jolted awake, nearly hitting his head on the low bunk. Sinking back against the bed, he sighed in relief, It was just a dream… "Another nightmare, Vegeta?" Nappa asked from his mattress on the floor since the bunks weren't nearly wide enough to hold the mountain of a Saiyan. "Yeah." Vegeta cleared his throat, "Yeah. Only this time I didn't see her die."

Understanding where his charge's worries were now, the bald Saiyan said, "Your worried that you can't protect her." "Well it's a little hard to do that right now, isn't it?" Vegeta snapped, wiping off the traces of the tears he'd cried in his sleep. "Quite down! Toma's bringing us in for a landing!" Bardock barked sharply.

Dressed and ready, Vegeta silently hated the fact that he stood out from the other soldiers with his royal blue suit and white chest plate. Being so different makes me an easier target… Disembarking from the hovercraft, Vegeta scowled at the man running to greet them. The freckled man had surprisingly tan skin, his shaved head even had spots on it, his raspy voice called out, "Welcome to Region 2. Name's Burter Hurricane, fastest sharp-shooter in Ee-arth. Follow me." The sound of explosions not too far away set the Prince on edge, grinding out, "Do they always do that?" "What? The mortars?" Burter chuckled, waving a hand dismissingly, "Oh, that's just how they tell us good morning."

"Turles? Man, is it good to see you!" Bardock said as he wrapped another doppelganger up in a tight hug. "Just how many of you are there?" Vegeta scowled, his arms crossed as he tapped a white boot on the ground. The Saiyan warrior pulled back from the other spiky-haired Saiyan, chuckling as he slung an arm around their shoulder, "Just us and my boy until my little brother here finds himself a Mate." Roughly pushing the offending arm off, Turles growled, "We both know that's never going to happen, so just lay off it!"

Exhaling slowly, Turles bowed slightly, "Pardon my brother. Actually, don't; he's quite annoying." "Aw, come on Turles! How long has it been since we've got to see each other?" Bardock asked, which earned him another growl, "Not long enough. And I've got work to do Bardock, so if you, the Prince, and his entourage would follow me, we can get started. Paragus is waiting."

The Region leader brought them to a large, wide hallway with elegant columns every few feet and torn, dusty pictures and tapestries hung between them. Paragus's scarred face filled up a small screen above a table. "Thanks for finally sending reinforcements, Paragus. Granted, sending the Prince might've been an little overkill." Turles said in lieu of a proper greeting. Vegeta smirked at the furious look on his puppet's face as the one-eyed Saiyan growled lowly, "Take care, Turles. I'd hate to have to divert troops from you." "As if you could." Vegeta laughed, This Saiyan is a fool… "You said it yourself, we can't reach the Capital unless we conquer Region 2. And Turles seems to be a capable leader so there must be a bigger obstacle in our path then mere mooks."

Turles placed a device down on the table, "You're right, my Prince." A hologram of a mountain appeared, showing the maze of tunnels beneath the surface. "This is the Nut. A personal nickname for it since it's been so tough to crack. Every last one of Freeza's orders goes through there before it's carried out. Bombings, troop movements, weapon distribution, everything. We've been trying to control it for weeks but its entrances are heavily fortified and its structures are beneath at least twelve feet of bedrock at its thinnest."

"We attempted to take the lower gate day before yesterday. But they had the high ground and we were forced to pull back. We lost a lot of good men." Master Roshi stated, pointing to the gate they had tried to capture. Pointing to another entrance on the map, Nappa suggested, "Why not attack one gate as a decoy while we attack another?" The old fighter glared at the mountain of a Saiyan behind his red sunglasses, "And just who do want to be the decoys, Nappa?" "Good point." The bald Saiyan mumbled.

Letting the voices fade into the background, Vegeta griped his chin as he studied the map. "We could bury them." At his proposal, everyone stopped talking. "Look," He pointed to crumbling cliff faces and old avalanche lines, "instead of moving their vents, they simply cleared them of debris. Leaving them wide open to be covered by another rockslide. And all but the train tunnels would be blocked." Paragus frowned, "But we would lose the chance to control the weapons stored there…" "Yes; but Freeza wouldn't have them either and that's the main thing." Bardock stated, adding, "We should make sure one train tunnel stays open for survivors to use to escape their tomb."

Since he was obviously outnumbered, the scarred President huffed, "Fine, I guess it's best that no one has those weapons. You'll bomb the mountain at first light." After the transmission cut out, Vegeta growled, "I want those bombers in the air in three hours." Smirking at the young Prince, Turles broke out into gut-wrenching laughter. "Woo, oh, it's been awhile since I've had a good laugh like that." The scar-less warrior breathed out as his laughter died down, "But I'm afraid I can't do that, Prince. It'll take that long to round up enough pilots, not to mention figuring out where we need to hit in order to cause the rockslides."

Dismissingly waving his hands, Vegeta grunted, "Whatever. Just get those bombers in the air tonight." "May I ask why, my Prince?" "Because Turles, I want to tick off my puppet." The teen whispered into the Saiyan's ear, causing the other to grin evilly, "As you wish, my Prince. As you wish."

A spiky-haired Saiyan came up next to where Vegeta was watching the bombers take off. "What's going on in that head of yours, Prince?" Bardock wondered, leaning against a column. Listening to the explosions in the distance, the teen spoke quietly, "Why didn't your brother try and use me to talk these guys down? This Region has the highest population of Saiyans, I'd have…"

"Apologies, my Prince, but there seems to be one thing that you have forgotten." Bardock interrupted, "Support for Freeza and the Capital runs far deeper here then other Regions. The Saiyans here especially, because he allows them the freedom to fight in his army. What they don't know is that Freeza has a cap on how many Saiyans he has on the Freeza Force. When a new, younger Saiyan catches his eye, he'll kill off an older one to make room. Or in Nappa's case, let him disappear into the lowest Region." "Well then, looks like I'll have to explain it to them." Vegeta smirked as the thunderous crash of rocks echoed through the valley.

Orange lights flooded the Square where the train tracks ran through it. Oolong tried to hand Vegeta index cards, "Here, Shenron wrote this…" "As if I've ever spoke from a card." Vegeta quipped, using the tip of his bow to knock the cards to the ground. Crossing his arms, the pig-like man huffed, "And that's worked wonders before, hasn't it?" Vegeta stopped mid-step, turning a violent glare on the assistant, his deep, gravelly voice low and threatening, "What did you say, Pig?"

Quickly waving his hands in front of him, Oolong stammered out an apology, "I'm… I'm sorry. I just meant that…" He sighed, "Ok, look. You're not just speaking to the rebels this time. Most of those coming out of that mountain are loyalists and you've got to appeal to them. So your going to have to speak differently then you normally would." Although he was still glaring at the man, it had lost a bit of heat as Vegeta growled, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Whatever you're going to say, say it fast, Vegeta. I don't like you being this out in the open." Nappa said, gripping his crossbow tighter. With his back to the mouth of the tunnel, Vegeta stared straight at Larry's camera helmet, his voice ringing loud and clear, "My name is Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyans. I'm here to address the Saiyans and loyalists within Region 2. Lay down your weapons…" The sound of a train coming down the tracks put everyone on high alert and Vegeta turned to face the threat but did not move.

The battered people piled out of the train cars. Everyone was confused as the warriors started yelling at them to drop their weapons and to get on the ground, slowly they complied. A man stumbled off the train with a pistol in hand and started to walked towards Vegeta even as Bardock and Nappa were ordering him to drop it. Either this man's drunk or he hit his head… Vegeta thought. Suddenly a gun went off and the man dropped to the ground. "Hold your fire, you idiots!" The teen bellowed as he dashed forward to keep the man from dying.

Kneeling beside the injured man, Vegeta noticed the black hair, the tan skin hiding beneath layers of dirt, and the crazed black eyes that stared up at him, "You're a Saiyan." The Saiyan shoved the barrel of the gun against his Prince's throat, growling, "One good reason, Prince. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow your head off." Vegeta closed his eyes as a blue-haired Woman flashed in his mind, the only reason he had to give.

But it wasn't good enough; he wasn't good enough. "Nothing comes to mind. But that's the problem, isn't it? I'm the one who said to bury our people in the mountain and, let's face it, our people were probably the ones who razed my home to the ground. If you survive killing me, then that'll make you the next King of All Saiyans. And Freeza will be a very happy man-child with a new toy. Because I'm done being his plaything." "I'm not… not Freeza's toy." The Saiyan whispered, his resolve wavering.

Good… I can talk him down… "I was." Vegeta whispered back, "For too long, actually. That's part of the reason I killed Zarbon, and Zarbon killed Sixteen, and Sixteen killed Dodoria. It just goes on and on without an end in sight, because you know why? Freeza's been making us run in circles around each other for his own sick pleasure. If you're going to kill me, then tell me why you're fighting for a man who would do the same to you?" The gun made a thunk as it hit the hard dirt, the Saiyan interlaced his hands behind his head but wouldn't meet Vegeta's gaze.

Standing, the Saiyan Prince began to address those around him, "We are not the enemy. Instead, we share a common foe; that murderous lizard Freeza. A man who would kill our people simply because he wanted a newer, younger fighter but the max number of Saiyans within his Force was already reached. Stop killing for a man who will, in the end, kill you. Tomorrow we march for the Capital, who will join us?" A gun shot ran out.

Vegeta clutched his side, his hair shifted as he forced himself to stand, snarling, "Who dared to shoot me?!" All arms pointed to a pudgy man on the edge of the crowd who was, surprisingly, still standing. Slowly making his way towards his would-be assassin, the Prince noticed that everyone was shying away from the man. Using his bow to knock the weapon out if his limp hands, the teen eyed the fat man up and down, smirking with glee as the color drained from his face, "Tell me Chuckles, do you feel fear?"

The man turned tail and ran; or at least he tried to. Dropping his bow, Vegeta moved so fast he appeared in front of the fleeing killer, caught the man's head between his hands and grinned, "All I needed to know." The snap of the man's neck echoed in the silence of the Square, his body falling to the ground with a heavy thump. "All hail Prince Vegeta!" Someone said, causing a chorus of voices to repeat, "All hail Prince Vegeta! All hail Prince Vegeta! All hail Prince Vegeta!" Basking in the chanting of his name, Vegeta began to feel faint. The ground rushed to meet the teen as he lost consciousness.