Gine held the cold pack against Raditz's face as he stared down the grinning Nappa. The boy was barely able to stand, and he had a rasp that Gine wasn't particularly happy to hear, but it was most of her strength to prevent Raditz from flying away.
"He's...So strong.." Raditz wheezed.
"So will you," she insisted, lifting the cold pack, and poking the injury. He winced; his eye wasn't going to open until the swelling went down all the way, "You need to keep at it."
"I can't beat him, mother…"
"You're not supposed to," she told him, applying a bit of glue to an open wound on his cheek, "You're supposed to attack him, and pay attention. Figure out why he's beating you, and learn from it. Or, just take the boost, and try again, until you don't need me to stitch you up anymore."
"What? That's-that's madness!" he insisted, "There's no way I can beat him! I don't want to get the crap beaten out of me every time I need to train!"
Gine pressed her finger against the swelled eye, causing him to gasp and flinch away from the pain, but she held him down, "You will attack him, Raditz, because you need to get stronger. Take the pain. Fight through it. We'll find a way for it to click, we'll make a warrior out of you. But until then, you keep attacking him. You keep trying."
"But-"
"No excuses, Raditz. He won't accept any, neither will Vegeta, and certainly not Lord Frieza. So I can't accept it from you, either," Gine told him. She held up his chin, "Tell you what, Raditz. You land a punch on General Nappa, no matter how much he beats you, just one punch, and I'll cook you a liver sausage. Nothing for anyone else, not even the Prince. All for you, okay? Land a punch for me."
Raditz's eye lit up at the mention of his favorite treat, and he nodded, "I'll get him!"
"Do it, Raditz!" Gine cheered as he flew off his stool, straight at Nappa. Gine held back the cringe as Nappa began to beat on the poor boy; Raditz was too slow, too unfocused, and just couldn't understand how to coordinate his body. He had powerful Ki blasts, but Raditz was so afraid of failure. Getting a daily beating for almost two years probably didn't reassure him.
Gine stepped into the next training room, where her own failure awaited her: A Saibaman, grown just for her to fight. The other Saiyans were sparring in the same room, and Gine braced herself for the insults as she approached the creature.
"Ready to get tossed by the salad again, Gine?"
"Remember, you gotta kill it, not prune it! It's a Saibman, not a flower!"
Gine charged at it. The creature had so little sense of self-preservation that it just attacked, taking her blows and smacking her with its blunt claws.
"Remember, you're supposed to punch it, not massage it!"
She hated this.
"Don't want it to photosynthesize at you!"
Fighting made no sense to her.
"Watch out for its roots, they might grow a bit!"
They were parasites, taking from others.
"I think I see an ant munching on it! Watch out, it might kill the Saibaman first!"
Why was she fighting again? Why was she letting Raditz get tortured?
Gine landed a punch, blasting through the Saibaman's head, leaving a green goo on her fist. The creature twitched, grasping for the brain that was no longer there, and fell to the ground. Raditz's screams of pain and surprise as Nappa beat him around rang in her ears.
"Woah, she actually did it!"
"Pfft. Finally."
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Gine roared, and she flew straight at the wall dividing the sparring rooms.
"What the-" Nappa managed to stammer just before Gine's fist collided with his jaw.
"I'm not going to let you torture my son any longer! He's not learning a damn thing, he's just getting more bruises! I told you I wanted you to teach him how to fight, not just beat the tar out of him!" Gine growled as she threw a flurry of punches on him, "I need my son to be a warrior, not a punching bag, you half-minded brute!"
Nappa was caught off-guard at first by the sudden attack, but quickly turned into a defensive posture, and began taking her strikes on his arms, before rearing his head back and smashing his head against hers, sending her across the room.
"HEY! DON'T HURT MY MOTHER!" Raditz screamed, and he bolted off the ground, fist-first, but Nappa caught the attack, and slammed him against the wall.
Gine charged straight at Nappa, firing a Ki blast, which Nappa blocked easily, but took a blow to the stomach.
"You want to see what a warrior looks like?" Nappa took in a sharp breath, and landed a bunch against her side, sending her into the wall, too, "I'll show you what a Saiyan warrior really looks like. Raditz fired a series of Ki blasts, but Nappa just ignored them entirely; the boy was already exhausted and beaten. Gine began to kick at Nappa, but he simply ducked out of range of each blow, keeping his eyes on Gine.
"Your son's pathetic. You're pathetic. I can make him stronger, but he'll never be a real warrior. Neither of you have the will, the strength, or the pride to fight like a real Saiyan. We'll get some use out of the two of you, but-"
Gine lined up her hands together, and struck Nappa in the chest with her own Ki blast; this one actually sent him back a step, and she followed up with a gut punch. The first punch hit, but he caught her wrist on the second attempt.
"All right, that was a good hit," Nappa admitted, and punched Gine in the head, knocking her out. Raditz flew at Nappa's head, but the bigger Saiyan ducked underneath, and jumped up, striking Raditz in the chest and implanting him in the ceiling.
Nappa looked down at the unconscious Gine, up at the groaning Raditz, and over at the hole she had put through the wall.
"Looks like you've got a fighting spirit after all," Nappa chuckled, peeling Raditz out of the ceiling and letting him fall to the ground. The boy would get a decent boost from this, and Gine had just discovered she actually had power.
Maybe she was right, though. If Raditz had the kind of power Gine was just able to bring, maybe it was just a matter of time until he tapped into it. The boy would need more than just the standard beat-until-tough.
Nappa touched his chest, where Gine had blasted and punched him, only to realize there was a hole in his armor; she'd blown straight through it, and his chest was starting to redden; he was going to bruise there. A grin stretched across his face. Yeah. These two were holding out on him. He was going to have to give them the real stuff.
"General Nappa, are you-"
"Who said you could stop sparring?" Nappa asked the Saiyan, and the Saiyan let out a yelp, and went back to his routine with his partner. A Frieza Force technician entered, and gawked at the damage.
"N-Nappa, what-What happened? The training room, it's...Destroyed!"
"Just got a little rough is all," Nappa waved them away, "Don't worry about it."
Nappa ignored the technician, who went about inspecting the damage. Nappa shook Gine, until she stirred and opened her eyes.
"Wh-what?"
"You've got a hell of a temper," Nappa chuckled, "I'm going to have to watch out for it in the future."
"Did-did we win?" Raditz asked. The technician was groaning at the hole in the wall.
"Nope," Nappa said, "Good try, though. I'm hungry, though, and you know that the Prince will be. So get up. You need to get cooking."
"Ugh…" Gine pushed herself off the ground, "Yes, General…"
The technician gestured to the Saibaman, "Oh no, it's everywhere!"
"And tomorrow? We train again. Real training. Both of you," Nappa said, "You'll do more than punch through a Saibaman's head when I'm done. Mark my words."
"Wait-how did you put a hole in the ceiling? What kind of training IS this?" the technician demanded.
"Good training. Now shut up and get fixing. We're doing this again tomorrow," Nappa instructed them. Gine rediscovered her balance, and started to limp out of the room.
"And Gine?" Nappa called out.
"Hyngh?"
"I'm going to expect even more. Every day."
"Yeah, all right…" she dragged herself out of the training room, with Raditz at her heel. The technician looked at the Raditz-shaped dent in the wall, and did a double-take at Raditz.
"Wait, isn't he a child?"
Nappa ignored him, stepping through the wall to observe the drills being done by the other Saiyan warriors.
"Weakling," Vegeta hissed.
"Please! Vegeta, help!" the Saiyan gasped, but the Prince rolled his eyes as the other members of the Frieza Force continued to kick the poor warrior on the ground. The man coughed blood as the soldiers hit him in the stomach.
"Are we seriously going to let this happen, Prince Vegeta? Just let them kill him like that?" Nappa asked.
"If he can't finish a fight, he shouldn't start it. Besides, he deserves it for being so pathetic. If he's so weak he can't take on these losers, he's no Saiyan worth having," Vegeta said, turning away. Nappa and the other three Saiyans watched. Gine clenched her fists, while Raditz watched Vegeta start to walk out of the cantine.
"We're getting involved," Gine told Raditz, stepping forward.
"But Prince Vegeta said-"
"We're all that we have left," Gine reminded him, "And we're not Prince Vegeta. Are you in, or do I have to remind you what a Saiyan really looks like?"
Raditz looked back at Vegeta, and then to his mother, and nodded. Gine approached the thugs with Raditz at her side.
"Enough!" Gine shouted, stepping towards the thugs; the beating continued. Gine raised her hand, and fired a blast at one of their heads, "I said enough!"
The thugs turned to her, and their victim took the moment to cringe at the pain.
"You want what he's having, lady? Because you're fixing to get some for that."
"That man is a Saiyan warrior. A veteran of more campaigns than you'll ever see. You're cowards to gang up on him and you're going to pay for that. But I'll let you walk away bruise-free, right now," Gine warned, "But it's a one-time offer."
"Eat laser!" the soldier shouted, holding up a pistol, but Raditz was on him as Gine dodged the shot. She used the momentum to attack the man standing beside the shooter, while Raditz started to strike the shooter where he was unarmored.
Nappa crossed his arms and watched; they'd only been training under him, really training, mind, for about a month, and the mother and son duo were showing their stuff.
"I thought I said to leave the weakling to die?" Vegeta said, returning to Nappa's side once the fight started.
"Well, it might be beneath you, but not them," Nappa said, gesturing to them, "Besides, they need the practice."
"Hmph."
Raditz and Gine grabbed the heads of the last two goons, and smashed them together, knocking them out. Gine dusted her hands off, standing above the bodies. She looked around at the audience of the cantine.
"This man is a Saiyan. We are the greatest in the Galaxy, and to attack one of us, is an attack on our pride. If you think you're bad enough to take on all of us, go right ahead. But we won't suffer cowards that jump a fighter in a gang. You're supposed to be soldiers of the Frieza Force. Pathetic," Gine told the room, and she kicked the soldier that had shot at her, breaking his back with a sickening 'crack.'
Gine knelt down, and picked up the wounded Saiyan.
"I said to leave him," Vegeta said to Gine.
"My Prince, you gave no such order," Gine's tone changed to placate him, "You merely said that he deserved his fate."
"We have no room for weaklings."
Gine looked over to the pile of writhing Frieza Force soldiers, and then back to Vegeta, "Certainly no room for that bunch."
"You're starting to get cocky. Remember what you are, cook."
"Of course, my Prince. You won't be disappointed with tonight's meal, I promise."
"Hmph," Vegeta grunted as he turned and left. Nappa tapped his bicep.
"We can't afford to be making enemies of Frieza's soldiers," he told her.
"We can't afford to be losing more Saiyans, either," Gine gestured to the man she was carrying, "And I think the soldiers of the Frieza Force have made up their minds about us already. So given the choice, I think I'll stick with my own people, Nappa."
Nappa grinned, "Fine. But don't think this has done anything to show you've gotten strong. You're still beneath the Prince's notice, as far as he's concerned."
Gine looked Nappa up and down, and took a breath, "Thank you, General, for your training. Tomorrow, Raditz will finally land a punch on you. And I will give you a gift for helping us. After dinner, see me in my kitchen. In the meantime, I'm bringing Shive to the healing pod."
Nappa watched them go as Raditz kept to her heel; he glanced back at Nappa as they went through the door.
"Why did we save him?" Raditz asked, "He's weak."
"So are you. But you can't get better if you're dead, Raditz. We're all that's left. We have to survive. We have to stand together. Vegeta might go on about pride, and that Shive's failure is an insult to Saiyan pride, but the truth is, letting Shive die tells everyone that Saiyans won't lift a finger for each other. We can't afford to let any of us fail, because letting an insult like killing a Saiyan stand is the true insult to our pride. You, me, Nappa, Vegeta, even Shive. We are our pride. We are what we fight for. They are why we get stronger."
"I thought you didn't like fighting?"
Gine was silent for a moment, "I didn't. Because we were selfish. I didn't like the way we fought, or the reason we fought, before we lost our people. I could afford to be a cook, because others were strong enough without me. But we can't do that anymore, Raditz. Even the least of us, losing one of us is a loss to everything we stand."
She looked down to Raditz, "Remember that. Even if Prince Vegeta doesn't. We're greater together. Don't be afraid to fight for your team. For your people. Even if you don't always like it, you fight for them."
He nodded, "Okay, mom. You really think I'll land that punch tomorrow?"
"You better, I already promised Nappa it would happen. If you don't, I'm giving him your sausage."
"WHAT? No! It's mine!"
"Well then you'd better punch Nappa tomorrow."
Gine bit down on the bone, and spit out the end. With her hand, she crushed the other end, and began to suck, the marrow rolling out of the bone and into her mouth. She savored the taste for a moment, before letting it roll down her throat. She enjoyed little moments like this, eating her own food alone, getting the chance to enjoy it without worrying what others thought. Normally she ate with the others, but she didn't want to listen to Prince Vegeta grill her about saving Shive. She licked her fingers, letting the spice of the sauce build up in her mouth so she could delight in every flavor and burn alike.
Damn she was good.
Someone knocked on the kitchen door.
"Who is it?" she demanded. Nappa entered without answering, and she relaxed. She really didn't want to talk to any of the other Saiyans right now, not even Raditz, really.
"Well, according to Prince Vegeta, that was the worst meal he's ever had. He should know, he ate so much of it. Raditz sure enjoyed that sausage you gave him, though. You said you had something for me, Gine?"
"Oh, yes," she stood, and placed the stool upon she was sitting in the center of the room, "Sit."
"What is this?"
"Sit!" she pointed at the stool.
He sat, facing the opposite wall. Gine went over to her utensils, and considered which one would be best for what she had in mind.
"So what do you have for me that requires me to sit down? You could just give me the box right now or whatever."
Gine pulled her chosen knife out of its sheath, and grabbed a small cloth, "Oh, this is a favor, Nappa. One I've been meaning to give to you for a while."
"A favor? I'm a simple man, Gine, I don't need much."
"You've had this coming. Now, close your eyes, and keep perfectly still."
Nappa straightened his back, closed his eyes, and held still. Gine held up the cloth, and dropped it straight on his head.
"Wh-that's warm!"
"Hold still!" she hissed.
"Gine! What are you doing to me?!"
She rubbed the towelette on his head, smearing the substance that had been heating on it. Once she'd gotten it all over Nappa's head, she held up the knife, pressed it against his scalp...And carefully drew it towards her, repeating the strokes, and trying to hold Nappa still when he shuddered as the knife was raked against his skin.
It was all over in a few minutes, goo and hair all over the floor. Gine took a fresh cloth, and wiped down operation location.
"There. All done."
"What was that? What've you done to my precious hair?" Nappa demanded, and she handed him a mirror.
"I killed that awful shrub on your head that you called hair. I cringed every time I looked at it," Gine explained, "Now, you look like nothing will stand in your way. You look like a badass. A bald, beautiful badass."
"You think I'm beautiful?"
She patted him on the cheek just hard enough for it to sting, "Stay focused, Nappa. Doesn't that look better?"
Nappa looked over his face and head from every angle he could reach. She took the mirror from him, and showed him a few more.
"Yeah. You're right, I should have done this years ago."
"There. I think I've earned your trust now, haven't I?" Gine threw the washing towelette on his face, "Best favor for you I could think of, as thanks for training us."
"Well we couldn't have you or Raditz dragging us down."
Gine opened the door for Nappa, "Well it's the least you could do for torturing that poor creature you let live on the top of your head. Now that I've killed it for you, we're even. Now, out, I've got to clean the kitchen."
Nappa smiled at her as he left; he jumped and his tail bushed when she slammed the door behind him.
