The hand that feeds me, chapter 4

Once upon a time, a king and his queen could not beget a child. The king was close to panic; for without an heir, there would surely be war.

So the king visited an old Gypsy woman.

"Woman," he told her. "You must help me. For I am desperate for an heir."

The Gypsy woman understood, and gave the king a golden worm.

"Take this worm and go fishing", she spoke. "When you catch a fish, take it home and have it prepared.

Your wife the queen must eat it, and if she does, she will soon begot with child.

Take care though, she must eat the whole and entire fish!"

The king did as he was told and caught the fish. He then took it home to his cook and told her to prepare the whole fish for his queen.

The cook, a nice little lady, prepared the fish as she was told.

'Still' she thought to herself. 'I cannot give the queen all the fish to eat. It could well kill her with her delicate stomach.'

So she cleaned the fish and took out it's entrails, giving the rest to the dog.

When it was all done, she also took a taste, to make sure it was all well prepared.

And indeed, after only a short time, the Queen became pregnant. Oh, happy day!

But, oddly enough, so too was the cook. And so, too, was the dog.

And when the queen gave birth to a baby-boy, on that same day did the cook also to a baby boy.

And so did the dog.

Also to a BABY BOY!

And all three looked exactly alike.

The king raised the three boys as his own, knowing they were all the work of the same magic, and he loved them equally.

But finally, it became time to pass on the throne. However, since all boys had looked exactly the same at birth, and had all been raised together,

No one knew who was the king's trueborn son. And, although the King had in his own mind already chosen the boy most suited to the throne, he needed piece of mind.

And so he went to the old Gypsy woman again. To ask her who was his true son.

She gave him this advice:

"Spank them all, all three.

One will cry and go running. That is the son of the Cook.

One will take it, and thank you afterward, saying it will only make him a better man for it. That is the son of the dog.

One will be angered and stay your hand. That one is your trueborn son."

And the King, again, did what he was told. And, indeed, what the Gypsy woman had said happened.

Unfortunately, the one who the king favoured -to his shock- turned out to be the son of the dog.

And so it came to be that a dog's bastard sat the throne.

And he was a good king indeed.

Tomorrow would be their first away mission.

Well, not really Vegeta's first. After all, he'd been going along with his father since he'd been able to stand. Which was the way it was supposed to be fot Saiyi-jins after all.

Not the first time for the rest of his class either; for apparently they'd been on several of these missions. Or at least so he deduced from their comments.

Still, on a whole, it was the prince's first mission with this 'class'.

His first mission without his father at his back, guiding his every move. His first mission without twenty odd guards making sure no one got a lucky shot at their precious Saiyi-jin no-Ouji. (After all, rough exterior and mean attitude besides, no true Saiyi-jin would let their 'saviour' be obliterated.) His fist mission where no one would send out scouts to make sure no snipes could get the next 'golden one'.

In other words, the very first time something interesting might actually happen.

Yes, all in all, this would be his first real mission.

The little Prince would be excited, were it not for two minor details.

Firstly, he had not had a good night of sleep since coming to this rotten place.

This whole week, he'd stayed up every night, awaiting Mawi's little visits. And, even thought the little bully hadn't showed up every night, he might as well have as far Vegeta was concerned.

This morning, when it had been about 5 am, and the kid still hadn't showed, Vegeta had even found hoping he would.

At least then he could fight them, loose, and then -finally- get at least a little sleep.

Sleep....

Not for the first time since this annoying -and pointless- briefing had started, the young prince's eyelids drooped shut.

Then shot open again.

The second reason!

The second reason he wasn't excited. No, even annoyed with it, was his simple premonition at the name:

A cleanup job.

Vegeta didn't exactly know what that was, but he had a feeling it wouldn't be very entertaining. And from what he'd made up from this briefing so far, it would be less than even that. No, looking back now, he'd much rather go with his father.

The times he'd gone on world with the king had always been worth remembering.

Now that was what a true hunt was to be like!

Not this. Not scraping up after the commando's leavings.

Sick of it, yesterday at dinner, Vegeta had re-found his courage, and asked. Asked nicely of the thing called Freeza if he couldn't go on the away mission with his father instead.

The pinkish thing had looked at him with sadness and even sympathy in his eyes, then promised he'd ask the next day.

And then, early next morning, Vegeta had been ushered into the 'master's' chambers, only to be made to listen to the creature's embarrassingly emotional speech.

Apparently, the king of Vegita-sei did not want his son along.

Well, fine. Whatever!

Nothing to make such a big fuss over.

But Freeza had kept him listening for over half an hour, telling him again and again how sorry he felt for the prince. How sorry it felt for him! Vegeta had been grinding his teeth during the whole terrible display. You'd think that the thing would know, after the years-old bargain between the Ice-jin and the Saiyi-jin race, how much Saiyi-jins abhorred emotional displays like that.

At least it hadn't been a public scene.

He'd have died of embarrassment if his 'classmates' had been there.

Classmates.

Yes; back to the problem at hand. Vegeta set up straight at his table, scanning around the briefing-room from his place at the back. It really looked your average classroom, if it wasn't for all those different kinds of aliens sitting their benches, all dressed in blue stretch suits and your standard type white armour. Well, that and perhaps the fact that all the children seemed to be paying their best attention. All totally focussed on the explanations of the man at the front of the room.

Each and every one of them concentrating to their best capabilities.

Well, all except Vegeta.

The Saiyi-jin had listened perhaps for a full minutes, before coming to the conclusion that the man's ravings were unconceivable boring. Not to mention pointless and sleep inducing. The fact that this last feeling might be caused by lack of sleep didn't appear to the little prince.

After all, it was obvious everything here sucked. Why should briefings and lessons be any more interesting?

It wasn't of any consequence, though; The Saiyi-jin had bigger things to concern himself with. Vegeta sneered as he located his target; his rival. Mawi; he was as entranced by the teacher as the others, or perhaps even more so. The purple boy only broke his eye contact with the teacher now and then, to quickly scribble something on a piece of paper. Notes; it was obvious the stocky kid was taking this all very serious.

Veins stuck out from his gargled face from the sheer force of his concentration.

Vegeta snorted, crossing his arms to lean back and stare at a piece of floor.

Why?

The soldier, or teacher, in front of them was obviously a third-class no-body. A veteran, perhaps, but not all that experienced as far as the Saiyi-jin could tell. He and probably not even survived those battles he had been in thanks to his skill, but more-like owed it all to luck.

And what the thing had to say wasn't too interesting either. He didn't go into where the little native critters could be hiding, nor did he give some ideas on how to drive them out. No; all he did was talk about this danger here, point out that catch there. Talk about snipers, traps.

Warn them to finish off the wounded quickly; boring, useless stuff like that.

Nothing the prince was interested in hearing anyway. Vegeta rather contemplated how to kill this bastard princeling upstart. Tomorrow would be the day, he promised himself. Mawi had pestered him enough for one lifetime.

And things had gone from bad to worse as the bullies -Mawi, and whoever his helpers were- had discovered his tail.

True enough, he could take a lot more then a third-class soldier could handle; meaning, he could stay standing when someone held it; but it was hardly comfortable. Having a heavy, sharp-nailed kid like Mawi (funny how he hadn't noticed those sharp toe-nails before)

dancing around on it was complete agony.

Ironically enough, it was Freeza's little explanation of Saiyi-jin customs that caught them on to his weakness. The tyrant had spent an entire evening explaining the other kids about 'Saiyi-jin ways'; as if it was the most fascinating toping he could think off. Even Vegeta had been bored out of his mind after two-and an hour full of the thing's chatter, though he had appreciated the gesture.

And then 'it' had explained about Saiyi-jin custom to keep away from another's tail; to keep yours close and wrapped about you so that no one would even know you had one, "because," it had stated, casually.

"You see, Saij-jin tails are so sensitive, they hurt almost at touch.

Very badly too, I hear, so don't you kids get any ideas."

If that hadn't been enough to get Vegeta nervous, the malice look he caught from Mawi was. Damned that Freeza! He always managed to bring up the worst thing at the worst times.

As if Vegeta had not already been in for it that night.

He'd taken a chance at sparring practice and tackled the kid, booting him in the face a couple of times before they'd been pulled apart. Vegeta hadn't even planned the thing; just seen his chance and taken it. Though he'd known it was a bad idea before he'd done it. The prince really couldn't help himself. He just hated the kid.

To the prince it seemed the boy's life revolved around making Vegeta's unbearable. Every time Mawi let out so much as a snort of laughter, Vegeta knew it was pointed directly at him.

If there was something he couldn't let pass, it was being ridiculed.

And he was being ridiculed most every night.

After that dinner though, his anger had turned. Turned to what? Vegeta wasn't sure.

He was just sure that if he didn't dispose of this... this creature, he would loose himself.

Yeah. Tomorrow.

----------------------

The first thing he noticed about the planet when his space-pod opened was the smell. The place smelled like... Well, nothing he knew anyway. What came closest, though, would be spoiled meat left in a damp, warm place for about –oh- two to three weeks. This, mingled with your average burning smell, protruded by something sour he just couldn't place.

Vegeta stepped out of his pod to survey his surroundings, a frown on his face as he studied the darkened skies. Red, blackened clouds hung those black, empty skies. All around him the landscape stretched out black, burned and dead. Buildings, vegetation and all were soothed dark, all cut off or pounded down to about eye-level. The prince scanned around, as he putt his foot down, feeling somehow that this death wanted to rub off on him.

He quickly regretted his ill attention, though, as he stepped into something squishy and soft.

Yuck!

The ground around him was littered with piles of goo, one of which he was standing in. The prince couldn't quite place what it was, but he had the uncomfortable notion it used to be part of something living. As he scraped off the yuck on a nearby rock, the other students came from their space pods and all gathered around Mawi.

Just Vegeta's luck the punk would be put in charge. It should rightfully be him, but apparently that didn't do for a first-time mission.

Vegeta did his best to ignore the purple kid as it started to relay orders to his 'command'.

Instead, the prince concentrated on smirking at a kid that had turned away to retch, after discovering what he, too, had been standing in.

"...And the monkey sticks with me..."

-"WHAT?!"

The Saiyi-jin stared at the purple-faced freak in disbelieve.

Mawi had the nerve to sigh.

"Look, kid. I don't like you much either, but it's your first time, and down here, we stick together."

KID?

The nerve of this guy! Vegeta was seething. Like it wasn't bad enough to be stuck with the creep 24/7 on the ship, his first chance at some fun was to be ruined by him too. Somehow, however, the young Saiyi-jin kept his mind to himself, and followed Mawi docilely. They looked through the rummages that used to be homes, Mawi taking the left side of the street, Vegeta keeping to the left. There really wasn't that much left.

The prince shot some rodents scurrying about, but all the inhabitants he spotted were already good and dead.

Till Mawi called him over to what must have been one of the larger buildings. Walls had collapsed, and though there must have once been more stories there was little left above shoulder level.

Reluctantly, he followed the older boy in, then down to the cellar by ways of dodgy tunnels and potholes though; there wasn't any staircase left.

The purple alien moved cautiously, as if he expected an ambush every second. Vegeta on the other hand just walked behind, arms crossed and with a bored scowl on his face. As far as he was concerned, Mawi had to be as shortsighted as he was stupid; several stories had come down on this place, and the Saij-jin prince hardly expected to find anything left alive.

So he was sort of surprised at the moans from the deeper crevices.

"This is awfull." Mawi felt the need to share. Whatever for was beyond Vegeta.

"We had better finish their suffering quickly."

Obviously, the purple creature didn't have a stomach for this kind of thing. It hardly surprised the Saiyi-jin; the boy might be strong, but he would never have a warriors blood. All the same, this wasn't much of a battle and the smell was enough even to hurry the young prince along. So, mumbling an affirmative, Vegeta cleared his way over to one of the groaning half-corpses. He would, however, try to have some fun out of this.

As best as he could, he ignored Mawi and his loud movements as he stalked about the ruins.

It took him a while, but he finally found a thin a blood-soaked figure under a piece of ceiling. The prince quickly lifted the annoying rock, and surveyed the creature. It's legs were twisted in strange angles, and what must once have been golden-coloured hair was now too clogged with blood and dirt to be sure.

But it did seem to be breathing., which was a miracle on itself. Vegeta watched with a mixture of fascination and awe as it turned it's bleeding head to regard the prince. The Prince decided it was probably a female of this race. Either way, it was definitely not a warrior.

"eh,.... who...?"

A little surprised that he could understand this frail creature, Vegeta listened on.

"Boy...!" it's voice was little more then a crack, hardly louder then a whisper.

"Please.... please... get help."

Vegeta sneered at the creature. Powering up slowly. If he'd felt any sympathy for the sorry thing before, it was gone now.

"I am not a boy!"

He told it, watching it's dumb folded expression.

"I am a warrior!"

The creatures eyes were half-lidden with pain, but she still managed to look scared.

That somehow felt right. Good.

With a smirk, he formed a moderately size ki-ball.

Not the biggest he could make, but probably enough to finish this creature.

"I am a warrior."

He told it, raising his little fist.

"And there IS no help."

With that, he released his attack at the broken native, letting it explode against her chest.

The female thing let out a piercing wail as her chest burned wit ki, then wailed again.

And again.

Vegeta looked at the creature with confused annoyance. He'd have thought that would have been enough to kill her. Instead, she lay convulsing, wailing and spitting up blood, cloths of it going flying to every direction. Some even landing on Vegetas.

Disgusted, the young prince backed up, preparing a bigger blast in his hand. Just as he was about to release it, though, a large beam hit the dying creature from the side. A loud blast, and the smoke cleared.

Turning to where the blast had come from the Saiyi-jin came face to face with a very angry looking Mawi. He scowled right back; that one had been his.

"Can't you do anything right?" It accused.

Vegeta just shrugged. He'd be angry; fuming, if it wasn't for his sudden observation. While Vegeta had been stalking and studying his quarry, Mawi had made his way about by blasting rather rubble rather then go around the barricades. The boy had cleared most of the rubble, and obviously all the corpses. He was breathing hard from the exertion as well, though there was more to the creature's unease.

Vegeta cocked his head to the side as he watched the pathetic purple alien scan around for any possible survivors. The boy looked spooked as he tapped at his scouter; spooked and ragged.

The prince wasn't sure what had caused this fall of composure in the stocky kid, but he did know how to take advantage of a situation.

He smirked to himself.

And there is no help.

Slowly, easily, he started reforming his Ki-ball. Cautiously, cautiously.

With that smirk plastered on his face, he stepped around and over the rubble. Like a cat getting ready for it's killing leap. Stalking closer to the boy, still gathering ki.

More. More.

Closer... closer.

Then,

"I-. I think that's all of them."

Vegeta froze at the boy's voice, then narrowed his eyes.

-"Yes. I think your right." his voice dangerously low.

"Well, no need to stick around..." he trailed off, his voice half breaking.

Yes. Mawi was scared. Not of Vegeta though. He was afraid of death, of the stench of it; the closeness.

Vegeta could feel it; smell the fear on him. It was only natural. Mawi's race wasn't one of warriors. Not like Saiyi-jins. Mawi's people were strong, yes. Good fighters, good soldiers. But they were never killers.

Saiyi-jins were. That fact alone made Mawi the prey, and Vegeta the hunter.

Yet the dumb kid still didn't know.

"Well, let's go then, monkey-prince."

Vegeta smirked. He'd pay now...

"Not yet, my friend. We still have one last thing to take care of."

Something in Vegeta's voice made the purple alien turn around. Yes; he'd felt it now.

The complete look of shock in its eyes as it caught a sight of the ki-ball glowing in Vegeta's fist was priceless.

"Yes, Mawi. One little thing. Between you, me and ,.. THIS!"

The blast ripped through the air, catching Mawi with no time to duck. He had seen it coming though, and blocked. Shockwaves rippled the air as Mawi looked doggedly over his crossed arms. Just in time to see a fuming Saiyi-jin lunge for him.

And they were at it. Fists flew everywhere, alternated with kicks, ki blasts and swipes. They both blocked, parried, even locked fists. Vegeta's knee got through to Mawi's abdomen, and within seconds the purple thing was pummelled to the floor.

Not letting the thing have time to catch his breath, Vegeta kicked at him, only to have his leg caught, getting pulled down in the process.

Soon they were rolling on the floor, grappling and shooting short Ki-blasts at the other's face.

Finally, they broke, rolling away from each other and to their feet. Both boys straightened slowly.

The Saiyi-jin growled, wiping some blood off his face. He'd not let this go he couldn't. He couldn't afford to let Mawi live...

Mawi huffed, holding his ribcage. "I'd not..."

"Do this..."

And Vegeta came at him again, knocking them both through the wall, out of the building.

Punches and kick were flying again. Vegeta was smaller and weaker, but after his exertions Mawi didn't seem to have a lot of stamina left.

They grappled again, falling over and rolling through the rumble, setting off dust and soothe in their wake.

And broke apart.

Abruptly, Vegeta became aware of cheering. Great. It was those other kids. More and more of his classmates came running over to get an eye-full of this spectacle; it was more action then this mission provided. Vegeta didn't mind that so much, but they drew attention. He had to hurry, before.

"Hey! What's going on around here..."

Soldiers!

Desperate, Vegeta ran at the purple creature, knocking his head deep into the creature's gut.

Mawi let out a long wheeze, falling flat on his back. Which gave Vegeta more places to hit as he started pummelling into the alien mercilessly. The stocky boy tried to raise his hands to protect himself, but he was too slow and winded. Blood spattered everywhere, and Vegeta's own blood sung with battle-fever.

Which was probably why he didn't stop when a pair of big hands grabbed him.

Rather, he started at them also, driving them back with a few well-placed punches. He shot at the next diversion too, and at the next invader who tried to take his prey away from him.

And the next.

There where five now, big ones.

But they weren't going to steal his kill. It was his.

They might all be on top of him now, but he'd...

Then, everything went blank.