Vegeta dangled his feet as he sat one of the benches in the waiting room

Yes, it's me again. J back from the dead with a new piece. I'll admit I haven't got _all the bugs out of the previous chappies. (chapter 7-13 is still unchecked as of yet) but I'll get to that when I get the chance.

This chapter is mostly setting up the next one, but I think it's nice all the same. :D all the same, I'm going to have a BALL next chapter. But I think that goes without saying.

Well, read 'm and weep. And REV!

(Disclaimer: why bother. I did this the first chapter. It's still valid, and still true.)

A fair maiden walked the woods one day, believing herself safe.

How wrong she was, how very wrong, for the evil murderer Redbeard took sight of her, and cut off her escape-route.

"Hello there, fair maiden." He spoke, feeling smug and in control. "I'm afraid that your days are numbered, you see, I thrive on killing young ladies such as yourself."

The young woman was afraid, for many ladies had lost their lives to this evil man. But, seeing her chase of escape was nil, she kept her wits about her well.

"Oh, no, you evil man! How awful, and how sad this makes me feel. I haven't even lived yet, I'm little more then a girl."

The man just shrugged.

"Such is live."

-"Well, if I must die, then die I must. But grand me this, good man (and she used the term lightly): I would not want to die a virgin. Make love to me, before I die, so that I have at least know love."

Then man was more then eager to comply, for the girl was more then pretty.

She took off her shoes and stockings; he took off his boots and pants. She undid her bodice; he took off his belt and sword. He pulled his shirt over his head.

And she picked up his sword and slay-ed of his head.

She smirked down on the dying man: "Never trust a maiden too willing, dear Red-beard. Fool man."

The hand that feeds me, chapter 14

"But surely the boy's hardly stronger. It could be that he took them by surprise. It could be that he took both of them by surprise."

Zarbon tried to steady his voice, risking a glance up. Not good. Freeza's tail was flicking side-to-side, giving voice to his agitation. Kami, please! I'm too young to die! This isn't my fault!

It wasn't.

It was all the monkey-prince's fault. But it didn't appear it was going to be him that paid for it. Oh, no. With every passing second, Zarbon felt more and more of his master's anger being directed at him.

The young warrior was powerless to defend himself if Freeza did decide to take matters out on him; as close to defenceless as mattered anyway. Zarbon was a good warrior; one of the best alive.

But Freeza was something different all together. The pink thing didn't look it, but he had power that was practically limitless.

Freeza was like a god. Or rather, like a demon.

If the blue warrior chose to fight, even if it was just to defend himself, Zarbon knew it would be his death. He would have no chance, no chance at all.

All he could do was kneel and keep his head down and pray to Kami to postpone his demise. Kami was more likely to listen then Freeza was anyway.

Other then his tail, Freeza remained motionless, staring out of the darkened window.

"Oh, sure that's it. Captain?" the man snapped to attention ever further. "Did you get a scouting-reading on our prince?"

The man tried to stand even straighter as he answered. "Yes sir. A power-level of two-twenty, sir."

-"hmmm."

Freeza's voice dropped, ringing almost sweetly. "And what was our monkey's reading before, Zarbon?"

-"One hundred and twenty seven. Little more then half."

The green-haired man was beginning to feel sick: almost twice as strong the boy had become, and practically over night. It was impossible. It had to be. Every one knew a Saiyi-jin's power-level could increase dramatically –though no one knew how, exactly- but this was just… wrong!

Freeza grunted, dismissing the captain with a flick of the wrist. "You see? Do you finally understand? This is my problem with Saiyi-jins. They are wildcards.

I have sent their delegations it to battle at odds as poorly as one to three, and have seen the monkeys return victorious. Not only have them win, but return stronger. This is what has made them such an asset to my force in the past."

The tyrant turned to the window again. "And this is what makes them a liability now."

Freeza's tail started swinging from side to side again. "Stupid monkeys. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How? How is that I want to know."

Zarbon risked looking up. "Maybe the previous reading was off. The little princeling wasn't -well- up to full heath before."

The horned tyrant shook his head, practically seething.

"No, no, no! They already compensated the number for that. The readings can't be off. It can't be wrong, but it can't be right either." It turned, striding over to his underling quickly, locking gazes with the young warrior.

"I ask you again: how is this possible?"

Zarbon didn't have a clue.

His guess was no better then Freeza's. But pointing that out wouldn't help. Dear Kami! He didn't want to die. This was all the monkey's fault. It should be the monkey here now, not him. Zarbon hadn't done anything wrong. Scared for his live, the longhaired warrior tried to look down, but couldn't find the strength of will.

"Zarbon?" voice sweet Freeza smirked, raising a hand and putting it to the man's throat. "I ask you one last time. How did he do it?"

Stroking his neck once, the tyrant's thumbnail came to rest on the warrior's Adam's apple.

"Oh and Zarbon? Try not to say anything too stupid."

The warrior chocked on his answer, before realising his solution was right there in front of him.

"I think. I think we should ask that to the prince himself."

Vegeta dangled his feet as he sat one of the benches in the waiting room.

And waiting he did, for over two long hour now.

Waiting for Freeza to see him. Surprisingly enough perhaps, this time, Vegeta didn't mind at all. He supposed he should be feeling apprehensive, knowing full well Freeza and his lapdog were discussing what to do with him. But the truth was, he felt too good to care.

Kami, he felt strong! Nothing could hurt him. Mawi was dead, Ray was dead. The orange fat guy was dead.

There still was that little matter of the fourth kid, but he had a way to fix that, too.

Smirking at the emptiness, he pulled out the yellow card again; a master-excess card. When the guards arrived he'd first noticed the thing on Mawi's bloody remains. Getting it hadn't been all that difficult in the chaos that ensued.

'Get him', 'don't kill him', 'be careful', 'take him quickly'.

The captain himself hadn't even known what to do with him, and so neither did his soldiers.

It had been a merry chase. The captain's squadron had not gotten off without a scratch: three ki-blast related injuries, a broken jaw, a popped shoulder, several bruised ribs and limbs.

Vegeta had not caused any of the injuries though; the giant dog-pile into which the endeavour had resulted was more likely to blame.

Grinning at the card, he counted his options. Most likely to his mind, Freeza would just lock him up in his room again.

Wouldn't that be grand? He could just sneak out and look for the fourth boy and not even be under suspicion when he got rid of him. It was almost too good to be true!

Something clicked at the door, and Vegeta hurriedly hid the card up his bodysuit's shirt. Putting on the most innocent expression he could muster, he put his eyes on the door. He recognised her voice before he saw her. She sounded angry, but her voice was low and soft. After a moment the door swished open and Chesire stood glaring at him from the entrance. She glanced at her sides before entering, ralaying to the guards that: "I can manage myself, thank you." and marched in like a storm trooper.

Vegeta gave her a surprised look. She was the last person he had been expecting.

"What are you doing here?" He blurted out.

Chesire spread her legs, crossing her arms to glare down at him.

"What am I doing here? I'll tell you what I'm doing here. I waste over a week working on your sorry butt, and the moment I go down to the bar to celebrate I hear you're about to get yourself killed."

The prince cocked his head to the side. "What are you talking about? I'm fine."

The woman was seething. Her fur was blistering under her coats, and her tail three times its usual breadth. In other words, she looked ridiculous.

"What am I talking about? I'll tell you what I'm talking about. You're acting out of sync, you're moving ahead of schedule and you're disobeying Freeza."

Vegeta snorted. "Out of sinc? Whatever."

-"Whatever?! He's going to rip you limb from limb. He's going to kill you for this, you stupid monkey. You're as good as dead already!"

-"Look here, cat, I really doubt that he would even touch me. Besides, I'm a Saiyi-jin, and a prince at that. He probably couldn't hurt me if he tried. Besides, he's not going to, right?"

The blue-furred cat rubbed her paws over her face.

"You really are stupid aren't you? You've messed up his schedule for you. You weren't supposed to kill those kids yet; He's going to be pissed. And when Freeza's pissed. Well." He looked him straight in the eyes. "Lets just say things get broken."

Vegeta just scowled at the stupid woman. It was clear she didn't know anything.

"He can't kill me, cat. I'm a Saiyi-jin prince. Even if it did have the strength to do it –which I doubt- I'm too valuable to be murdered."

The Begaal stared at him for an awkward too seconds, then let out something that could have been either a choke of laughter or a sob. "You stupid, stupid boy! You think that, what? Those boys you killed were princes also, you know. Freeza wastes about a dozen princes a week. Goes through them like eggs, he does. What? You think you're worth more then the others? You think your father can protect you? How's this for a thought."

She leaned down a little, pointing a finger at his surprised nose. "Freeza's been complaining the money-king's such a handful. Having him come after Freeza over this, why, it would be the perfect opportunity to teach all Saiyi-jins a little lesson."

Growling, the prince slapped her hand away. "Don't you dare even think that! Freeza couldn't. I won't let him; I'd kill him myself first."

-"You?" She frowned at him a moment. "You are going to fight Freeza? Cute."

Vegeta crossed his arms defiantly. "Freeza doesn't look that though to me. Besides, I'm really strong now."

-"ooooh! Right! 'I'm reeealy strong now'." she mimicked him in a high-pitched baby-voice, and then smirked. "Fine then, let's see."

The prince stared at her. That was something he hadn't been expecting either. "What?"

-"You heard me, show me. Let's fight."

Then without warning slapped him to the side before backing up. Vegeta's head reeled, but that didn't stop him from rushing the woman with all his might. Righting himself, he lunged. When he noted her ki-blaster, it was already too late. Vegeta hit the wall with bone-crunching force, before sliding down slowly. He blinked twice before trying to get up from his sitting-position.

"You cheated." he croaked. "Only weaklings use ki-blasters."

The Bengaal smirked, but did not lower her weapon. "I am a weakling, remember? Now, do you give?"

Vegeta mentally swallowed. Absorbing ki-blasts without any armour to deaden the blow was painful enough the first time. He didn't fancy getting hit again. He nodded.

Chesire didn't look smug, but turned to examine the gun she held.

"Pretty strong, eh? Can you make a blast as strong as that?

We got the ideas from the Ulisers. Dangerous bunch. They didn't carry hand-held ones, though. No, the build really big ones and put them on their spaceships. Their battle-cruiser model was approximately one-thousand and twenty-seven times stronger then this model."

Putting the gun away, Chesire continued casually.

"They cloaked their ships and waited for a good chance to attack us, because they knew they had no way of beating Freeza's armies head-on. One day, they got lucky; Freeza himself went out on one of his interstellar walks. Looking though some wreckage or something, I do not remember the exact details. At any rate, they stalked our ruler and blasted him in the back, catching him by complete surprise. They disintegrated Freeza's hover chair, his armour, and all his lackeys. Even this ship, docked miles away suffered injury from the blast.

But Freeza did not have a scratch. He turned around and blasted the enemy vessel without a further thought."

She looked the Saiyi-jin up and down again, appraising him with her eye before asking.

"Do you still want to try taking him out?"

Vegeta actually though it over, but it didn't sound like he had much of a choice. "Fine." He growled. "Then what do I do?"

The bleu-haired cat smiled. You Saiyi-jins have a trade-treaty with the Wusei, do you not? Have you ever met their delegation?"

The Wusie. How could he not? A species of traders, the Wusei had jumped at a chance on the Saiyi-jin ware-markets; with Saiyi-jin population sky-rocketing, and food as scarce as ever, the Saiyi-jins needed them. But that didn't mean anyone liked them. Suck-up cowards, the lot of them. Always seeking out the king to bother him on this treaties practical problem or that market's new possibilities.

"Yeah. Wusei: hypocritical lying diplomats, the lot of them. What about those slime-balls?"

Chesire's smile opened to an ear-to-ear grin. "That's who I mean. Now, Vegeta., do you know how to act?"

-"Nanni?"