Chapter 8 – Denial

POV Prince Vegeta

Planet #79 was in sight. A small dark planet. Lots of white purple buildings and landing areas. We had been given the coordinates to land. Five space pods landed in the right spot. We had landed at the headquarters command center. This was the heart of the Frieza Force. Many fighters lived here and from it spread the web of the force across the universe.

The doors of the pods opened slowly. A cold wind rushed in. This was definitely not like planet Vegeta, which was normally warm and dry. The sky was dark, there was no sun nearby, only a small one. This also made the air cold. There were trees growing, but they had needles instead of leaves. The grass was dark green and firm. The ambience was what you could expect from an army base.

We were met by Appule a middle class warrior in training. The purple alien with an octopus like head had a nasty grin on his face. "Welcome in your new home boys" he smiled. I crossed my arms, nothing new home nonsense. This is pure bullshit. I had wanted to type in the coordinates of our home planet first, see first and believe later I thought. But the grown men were against it. Fine! Then I first want to see the images, proof that there has been an impact at all.

I spat on the ground "where is Frieza?" Preferably I wanted to slap that dirty smile off his mug. Ideally I'll want to knock him down, fight everybody on this stinking planet. Appule just put his hands on his hips "Follow me Vegeta". I snapped at him "prince Vegeta". The alien just signaled us to follow him. Everyone followed Appule into the building.

The walls were white and round to the top, on the ground were red tiles. There was a cold chilling atmosphere. There were soldiers everywhere hanging around the hallway, they looking at us. Dodoria stood also in the hallway; he had a dirty smirk on his face. He always looked so cocky as if he was above it all.

We arrived at a large sliding door. Appule pressed a button and the door slid open. He went into Salute pose and said "Lord Frieza, the Saiyan team of young Vegeta is back from their task my lord." Prince, I am a prince I thought angrily to myself. I clenched my fists, this is not where I want to be. Home was no longer a pleasant place, but always better than this place.

Frieza sat in his hover chair with a glass of wine. Slowly turning around, he looked straight at me. When he lies about the meteor, you see that. You see when a person is lying. Also with Frieza, right? Zarbon came to stand beside him, with his hands behind his back. "Oh poor little prince, I still can't believe it. A meteor, no one foresaw it coming. So tragic". But I saw nothing, no twitching or flicker. He seemed to be telling the truth? How is this even possible?

"Very tragic indeed Lord Frieza" I tried to stay as calm as possible, strategically I was thinking what was convenient to say when. Not to provoke a fight, but to catch him in a lie. Our planet was never suddenly gone. I refuse to believe that. A meteor, what a bad excuse and a bad joke. Father will be in any moment? Won't he?

"But fortunately I have a good heart. You will have a place here on planet #79". Frieza took a sip of wine. The entire Saiyan team took a bow. Wonderful, I thought to myself. But this is a planet where I don't like to stay; my head needs to be clear. I need a target.

"And another task, we don't like to get bored Lord Frieza." Zarbon looked angry, took a step towards me and wanted to say something but was cut off by Frieza. "Of course little prince, monkeys always have to have prey" At that moment Frieza looked at my right hand men. "But Nappa, I hope you do teach that child better manners. He's a bit brash". Stay calm and composed, I kept repeating to myself.

Nappa wanted to defend me his prince but I stopped him by a stern look. Zarbon took a step forward with an amused smile. "Appule will lead you to your quarters. Meanwhile, he will show you the medical center, training arena and canteen. Welcome home on planet 79". Angrily I turned around, welcome to planet #79? This is not our home, we are proud Saiyans. No meteor will have just destroyed our planet. Never and truly never will this be our home.

"Follow me gentlemen" Appule stood up straight with his hands behind his back. Together we walked up to the corridor, turning left. Our group of Saiyans walked behind him. While walking we saw soldiers looking back, gossiping. The eyes seemed to burn in our backs. But I was above this. Let them watch, let them gossip. We are better than them anyway. After all, we are Saiyans and better at everything.

We walked through two sliding doors to the outside, the cold was stinging a little. A wide path of red pink tiles ran from one building to another. There was a garden to our left. Not that it was pretty, it had some bushes and a dirty brown colored pond, flowers didn't grow here. Less than a minute later, we entered the medical center. Only to walk through it, now to a very large building.

"This is where most of our warriors stay. Sleep, eat and train, this is the place to be. The canteen is there. "The purple alien pointed to a large open doorway. It looked dirty and much was broken. Probably there were often scuffles. Food was important to us Saiyans. And so apparently there is dinner and a show here sometimes.

Some little way down the path, we looked down from a railing. A large open space with weights, punching balls and other training attributes. We saw different teams training. The place smelled like sweat and mutt dirt. Not much different than on planet Vegeta.

Our ugly tour guide got a grin on his face. "Oh there will be a fight, always fun" Appule leaned on the railing. He pointed to two older looking men facing each other. We, too, stood at the railing to look down. Time to observe the competition, we don't see many off Frieza`s man when we or in missions. Looking down we saw the two older men indeed, one had a young boy standing next to him; the boy looked like an ugly fish. The other also had a child next to him, but he was standing in front of it.

A purple guy with to large horns came to stand between them; the man made himself bigger and shouted "We have a power measurement. On the right we have Cui, elite pupil of Barbora. On the left we have Yuri the little wolf pupil of Ryoshi". The name echoed in my head, Yuri?!

From the corner of my eye I saw Raditz looking down startled and then at me. I looked down tightly with my arms crossed, ignoring Raditz. "Vegeta, that's "but Raditz didn't finish his sentence, his voice faded away. So this was the location where they took Yuri. My feeling was right that she was definitely not dead; they had a use for her.

Yuri wore traditional armor. Her long ginger red hair was in a braid. She was holding a wooden sword. "Girl, are you going to hit me with a stick?" Laughed the fish boy. But Yuri said nothing; she had a amusing grin on her face. I didn't know that grin, she had a cold expression but her eyes seemed to spark joy. Something was not right.

The boy attacked her but she only stepped aside. He flew past her. Again he attacked her. She danced away from him with ease. The boy attacked again and this time she jumped over him and pushed herself off a little more with her hand on his head. She had become fast. "Yuri don't play games" her teacher yelled.

She threw a glance at her teacher and with smooth motion she hit boy in his stomach with the stick. She turned around and the stick hit his neck, and again on his back. He fell to the ground. Yuri stood back next to her teacher. She made a small bow. This was interesting, we still had to finish our last romp. Wondering how good she had really become. Will the old Yuri still be there? Or is it just this mindless warrior.

Ryoshi her teacher began to laugh "You have a lot to teach your little boy. My little pup is the perfect warrior. She will become Frieza`s elite, just wait and see". With that they walked away.

"Prince Vegeta, shouldn't we go after her?" asked Raditz. I shook no, this was not the old Yuri I remembered. But then again, it was. But this is not the place for a reunion, it will come.. They walked away, Raditz turning once more. "Raditz come" called Nappa angrily. Sighing, he walked along with our group.

Later we arrived in our rooms. Everyone had their own small room. A bed, a tiny bathroom, a chair with a table. That's all there was. I dropped onto the bed. The room was dark and sober. My eyes squeezed shut, hoping this was all a bad dream. But when I opened them I was still in the depressing little room. Suddenly it occurred to me, what would my father have done? I rolled completely onto the bed, in a fetus position. Tears I didn't let go, but I wasn't feeling fine. Angry, disbelieve. We need to get away from this place, and shoot something.

An hour later, we were in the canteen. The defeated boy came to stand arrogantly beside me, grinning. "And who or what are you little one?" He asked, and then he also looked at Raditz. And only then he did our tails catch his eye. "Saiyans?" Surprised, he stared at us. "But you were all dead? How are you here then?"

I stood up and went to stand right across from him. "My name is Vegeta, prince of the Saiyans. And you just got beaten up by a girl, or didn't we see that correctly". Personally, I already hated this fish child. His arrogance and lack of respect is profound. He'll yet to learn what the powers of a Saiyan prince is, and then he'll bow down.

"My name is Cui, I am an first class warrior in training. And that little dog was cheating with that stick". The fish boy was angry and walked away with arrogance.

All the Saiyans burst into laughter. I sat down again, everyone continued eating. Then Zarbon came and stood next to the group. "You're new scouters, and immediately a task. You must go to planet Oranda right now." With that Zarbon walked away.

The group stood up. Finally a new task. I led the way, with Raditz on the left and Nappa on the right behind him. Followed by Tyme and Corny. They put on their new scouters. The Saiyans were looking forward to extermination.