It took him little time to reason out where his class would be up now

The Hand that Feeds me. Chapter 13.

For the ancient Greeks, the greatest victory of all was when your enemy, upon seeing you approach, hiked up his skirts ( by the time of the Romans, they still hadn't invented pants), turned around dropping his weapons and RAN!

It took him little time to reason out where his class would be taught. After he got there, he positioned himself outside, next to the door, waiting for the lesson to be over. Crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, Vegeta smirked and looked outside to pass the time.

Which in turn made him frown; the windows were pitch-black, darkened.

That was something he'd never seen before.

But, he didn't dwell on it; class was over, and his fellow 'students' came pouring out of the room.

He waited till the last batch came out. They didn't even notice him!

"Won't you at least say hi, Mawi?"

The boy froze, turning back slowly.

"Vegeta." was all he said.

It was enough. Some other boys turned to look also, then hastily moved to the side. The fat kid - the orange Posson - kept to Mawi's side, which was good. Vegeta could take them both.

He smirked again, pushing off and sauntering over to Mawi. The purple boy in turn pressed his notebook into the fat boy's arms and waited casually.

They came to a stand off, a distance of three paces, the fat boy discretely retreating, blending in with the gathering spectators. They stared at the other, both with a look of confidence and complete ease that was too practiced to be real. The silence was eerie; even the boys to the side kept quiet. Only a whisper could be heard here, then there as some of the more ignorant asked what was up.

Finally, Mawi broke the spell.

"You're not going to do something stupid again, are you Vegeta?"

The Saiyi-jin prince scowled. "No," he snapped, before remembering he held the trump card.

"That is, maybe. Why don't we just find out?"

Mawi smirked back, his foot moved,.. and they were at each other. Children screamed wildly, jeering them on as the two came together.

A fake, and Mawi lounged.

Vegeta sidestepped the bigger boy, punching as the bigger kid lunged past, but Mawi turned, using his elbow and following up with a hook with the other arm. The Saiyi-jin blocked the first few punches, but finally let one pass his defence, allowing Mawi to bury his fist in his ribcage. Vegeta almost laughed out loud, bringing up is own leg in a roundhouse and knocking Mawi violently to the side.

Sure, he'd felt it; it hurt. But if that was the best the stocky alien creep could do, Mawi's days were numbered.

Turning slowly, he watched in malevolent fascination as Mawi picked himself off the floor, obviously favouring his bruised ribs. The rest of the boys were all screaming now, jumping up and down, telling Mawi not to give up; they wanted the entertainment to last.

Feeling good for the first time in a long while, the prince cocked his head to the side as he grinned widely.

That was enough to set the other boy off again. It was almost too easy; Vegeta jumped, kicked, and caught the stocky boy straight in the jaw. Bits and pieces flew as the elder boy's head snapped back, before his whole massive body crumbled to the floor.

Mawi lay still a moment, then coughed. Something was wrong with the shape of his head. And, as he put his hands under his shoulders and picked himself up, little drops of blood and other, un-identifiable stuff started dripping down.

The screaming died down, more and more boys loosing their mirth as it was replaced with disgust. Vegeta wasn't done yet though. Raising his hand, he gathered his ki for one powerful, deadly blast.

Some kids murmured, others stepped back, but the Saiyi-jin pointedly ignored them, getting ready, turning his back just a little more. None of them had better get any ideas.

But one did.

With a blood-piercing wail, the fat Posson ran straight at the Saiji-jin prince, still clutching the notebook to himself. He was slow though, and Vegeta easily sidestepped, firing the blast through fatty's back. It came straight out the other side, right through the note-pad in a papery fountain.

"Toughhh!"

Twisting back around, Vegeta frowned at Mawi.

The boy had made it back to his knees, trying desperately to stand. His jaw looked all wrong and blood was coming from his ears.

"Is that what his name was? Don't worry." Vegeta smirked, pointing his other hand. "You will get to join his soon." And with that, he blasted the stocky alien straight in the face.

Mawi, or what had once been him fell back as his head exploded in a gale of crimson blood and yellow bone. His remains spasm-ed a bit, but Vegeta had lost interest, turning back to the fat, orange boy. He lay trembling on the floor, one elbow supporting him as his other hand tried to stop the bleeding. The boy was staring up at him wide-eyed, fear and pain obvious in his eyes.

Vegeta smirked; now this was payback.

He was interrupted though, by murmurs and soft foot-falls behind him. Whirling around, the little Saiyi-jin snarled at the other boys. "Who's next then?"

They all stopped as one.

Vegeta took a step towards them, and several stepped back.

He took another one and they broke, ignoring the fat boy's desperate pleadings; 'Don't go, he's mad!', and 'please, help me!'.

Turning back, Vegeta booted it in the side, disgusted. It cried out. For some twisted reason only the dying could understand, it tried to reason with the Saiji-jin though.

"Don't do this, please! You mustn't do this!"

Never in his life had the prince met such cowardice; it was degrading.

Growling, Vegeta lifted his head, exposing his neck and the ear-to-ear scar, speaking almost softly.

"Do you see this?"

The wild look in the Posson's eyes showed it did.

Vegeta smirked down on the pathetic creature. "Let's see you try breathing without a windpipe."

-"I didn't do anything!" It wailed. "I didn't want to. You started it!"

Feeling smug, Vegeta barked a laugh. "Oh, no my friend. You've it all wrong. I am the one that finishes it."

The creature's eyes looked like they were going to bounce out of their sockets. Voice shacking in horror, it seemed to accept it's fate. "You are mad."

With a sinister grin, Vegeta lifted his leg, bringing it down in the fat boy's throat. The Posson made a grab for his leg, but Vegeta just brought it down again, and again until the gurgling noises stopped. Stepping out of the purplish smudge that was the Posson's blood, Vegeta looked for someplace to clean his boot on.

Just then, he turned to the sound of running feet. He was surprised as a whole squadron of soldiers greeting him, but a little less when he noticed several of his classmates peeping out from behind the soldiers.

Vegeta was suddenly aware that the fight had taken quite a bit out of him; his legs were shacking and he felt a little dizzy. But even without that he knew his chances of taking out a group of grown soldiers were pretty close to zero.

Putting on an air of confidence all the same, Vegeta spread his legs and crossed his arms. He moved slowly the whole time though; making sure they would not interpretate his moves as an attack.

He smirked at the squad-leader, who was quite obviously eyeing Vegeta's previous 'opponents', coming to the conclusion they were both beyond rescue.

"What kept all you guys so long?" He asked the soldier, a sadistic glint coming to his voice.

"You missed all the fun."

Vegeta chucked at that, but then got the looks on the soldier's their faces; he couldn't help himself.

He threw back his head and laughed.

Empty space. The cold black from outside seemed to want to seep in from his space ship's window. Giant, empty, threatening nothing, right there on the other side of the glass. Some might find the realisation threatening. But somehow, it only gave Bardock a sense of piece. He didn't fear the nothingness; rather, he felt a part of it out here, like a tiger felt to be a part of the grass that was. Bardock grinned at his own reflection, but was looking beyond it. There, just at the edge of vision it came.

Slowly, like a duck that had been stuffing itself from it's own accord. But it came his way all the same. It had the appearance of being poorly designed for space travel, and ever poorer for battle. But then, who in their right minds would attack Freeza's flagship? No-one. No one at all, or they would have to have a death wish. But then Saiyi-jins were never known for their intelligence. On top of that, Bardock reflected, Freeza had just managed to drive the entire 'monkey race' over the top. It had taken their promise for future redemption. Taken the one boy that represented the pride of their people.

Freeza thought he could cull the Saiyi-jins into submission. He thought he could beat them down until none of them would ever again utter a word of rebellion. Like he'd done to so many species, so many planets before.

But he war wrong; there was one thing Freeza would never understand about them; a Saiyi-jin fought. It was his life. And he would either fight with you or against you.

This, taking their crown prince, had been the final straw, though. After this, no Saiyi-jin alive would ever fight on the side of Freeza again.

The stupid lizard just didn't know it yet.

Bardock checked his frequency three times before he felt it was secure enough to call.

"Get me the king, now." What? Saiyi-jins never had any use for manners. There was a grunt in response, and it still took a while. But Bardock waited patiently. Finally, the King himself answered in his ever-annoyed voice.

"What is it?" Instinctively, the soldier sat up a little straighter.

"My king. They are here." There was no need to specify who 'they' were. Every one knew.

The king grunted. "How long will it take them to get here?"

-"Days. I estimate another week."

This didn't seem to please the king.

–"That long?" Bardock blinked at his darkened control-panel. "Yes, my liege, at least. Is there a problem?"

The king sighed dejectedly. "Not really, I guess. At least it gives me time enough to recall every one."

-"Everyone? You're really recalling every Saiyi-jin alive?"

-"More then that. I've even got some allies willing to chip in. Though I haven't recalled Nappa or his squad."

That was a relieve, and Bardock showed it. "My son's on his squad." The king didn't miss it, of course. -"Not growing cowardly on me now, are you?"

Bardock didn't know if the comment angered or scared him.

"No my king, but the boy's only eight, and rather weak. He wouldn't stand much of a chance."

The king chuckled.

"Well that's not the reason I didn't recall them, as long as you know. It's just that Nappa's so dumb he's likely to ask Freeza shore leave to come help us. And actually mention we are going to ambush them too."

Bardock laughed along, feeling better for it. "He would too. He would indeed."

Their laughter died out, and in turned awfully quiet. The king was supposed to dismiss him, of course, but Bardock felt he had to do something back for the king. After all, even if the man didn't admit to having done it wittedly, the king had put both Bardock's sons their future save. His youngest had left on his purging-mission weeks ago. And Bardock did understand; he had two sons, now save. As it stood, the king had none. Swallowing once, he spoke up.

"So, how's the queen doing then?"

The king growled at that, angered. But Bardock had been expecting that. "None of your business."

With a sly grin, the warrior put his motion forward –it was indeed a good thing the king did not see his face, for the look would have surely betrayed him.

"Oh, my king, don't be like that! After we pull this off well and all, I'll be a general at the very least. Therefore, we might as well get better acquainted now!"

-"If we pull this off." The king spoke softly. "No matter. The woman's off somewhere, bad-tempered wench."

-"hmmm."

-"Not like I care. She's been nothing but complaints, even after I gave her that left-wing command."

-"ehem?"

-"Did you know she's even been roughing up guards? And she harassed the cook about some matter or such to do with breakfast."

Bardock smiled. "Yeah. I heard something like that."

-"Well, you soldiers gossip too much. But it's a good thing she's made herself scarce; she was worse then ever, last few days."

-"That's what they told me too. They even said" Bardock gave a lopsided smile at his dashboard, "she was acting so grouchy it was almost like she was with child."

The king sounded angry. "Oh."

-"Well, congratulations!"

It was quiet for a while, but then the king was back to his old self.

-"What-ever! Mind your own business soldier; go do something useful or something. You're dismissed!"

Bardock bit his lip. "Yes, my king. At once."

Turning off the radio, he let out a light chuckle. He really did like the king.