Chapter Fifty-Two: Alberm Pays The Ultimate Price

One hundred miles outside of Magan, six hours later.

"Alberm, are you certain that this device can contact Lord Frieza?
I still don't think it's as good as a scouter."

"Reccor, will you just let me do what I have to do? I had to bribe
that CRP officer into giving me this device and keeping his mouth shut about our
destination. Thankfully, I gave him enough money to last him a year; I'm
thankful my assets weren't frozen yet. He was also kind enough to give us a
vehicle to escape Magan unnoticed. It pays to know the right people." Alberm
pulled out a silver device resembling a personal data assistant, and he pressed
a few buttons on it. Alberm's businesses involved electronics and technology,
so Alberm had some experience in that area, although his employees knew more
than he did about it. The device was called an ICA-Intergalactic Communication
Assistant.

Reccor and Alberm had escaped Magan in a black skycar that Alberm's
CRP officer friend had kindly disabled the tracer on, so that they could not be
detected on any Calmagian radars. Reccor was driving the skycar while Alberm
was fiddling with the gadget, trying to signal Frieza. Petalia and Caline were
tied up in the back seat of the skycar, and both young girls were gagged in
their mouths. Caline had been crying for hours; she was certain that Alberm was
going to kill her, and Petalia was angry with the two men. How dare they do
this to her?

"Alberm, may I ask you something?" Reccor asked. "Why did we take
the girls with us? You know that the Astorians are going to come after us to
rescue Princess Petalia once they find out that she is missing. And they may
come for your wife as well."

Petalia, who had been struggling with her gag for half an hour,
finally managed to push the gag out of her mouth with her tongue, just enough so
that she could speak. "Where are you taking us?" she demanded to know, angry
and scared at the same time.

"How did you get that gag out of your mouth?" Alberm hissed.

"You better let us go!" Petalia declared angrily. "Do you know who
I am? I am Princess Petalia Chloe, a Princess of Chloe, and a person of great
importance! I am eighth in line to inherit the Astorian throne! No one does
this to a Princess of Chloe and her friends! You two are nothing more than
traitors and brutes, especially you Alberm, you wife beater! Reccor, my
great-grandmother and father will have your head for what you did to me! It's
bad enough that you betrayed our people to Frieza! My great-grandmother will
blast you into fragments! Don't you know that she's Shalila Chloe, stronger
than both of you put together? My whole Clan will have you both charbroiled
when they catch up with you two fools! And furthermore, I-"

Alberm reached over to the back seat of the skycar and stuffed Petalia's gag back into her mouth. "A mouthy wench," he growled, "more mouthy than my own wife. I'm thankful I didn't marry her! It's bad enough that I married that fragile doll back there! But that's alright; she's going to make it up to me, aren't you, Caline?"

Caline mumbled something into her gag, as the tears continued to
roll down her face. Alberm pulled the gag out of her mouth and smiled cruelly
at her. "Did you say something, little wife?"

"Please let us go back, Alberm," Caline pleaded, her voice still
full of sobs. "Petalia and I won't say a word about where you two are going.
We don't even know. You don't need to take us away like this!"

Alberm smoothed Caline's pale angel hair with his meaty hand, and he
nuzzled her cheek. "Oh yes, I do, little one. You see, Caline, I have decided
to give you a second chance; you are going to become a proper wife to me. I
could have murdered you on sight, but I didn't. I can give your friend to one
of Frieza's men; I'm sure one of them will be happy to have an Astorian to
torture and play with." Petalia's face paled at this thought, as Alberm
continued, "Yes, Caline, I do work for Frieza, and I am no longer ashamed to
admit it. When this planet is cleared of most of its inhabitants, Frieza will
allow me to rule over those that are left. I will be the next King of Calmag,
and you, my dear, if you behave yourself, will be my queen, an obedient,
well-behaved one."

Caline gasped in horror, "How can you betray our people like this,
Alberm, especially my family? My father and grandfather trusted you, admired
you, and looked to you. Why would you turn against us and the other Calmagians
like this? You're Calmagian yourself."

Alberm smirked, his hand still in Caline's hair. "I'm looking on to
bigger and better things, my dear, and I'm a realist. I know that Frieza will
eventually rule this entire universe, with everyone subject to him, and I am
just protecting myself, and those who will serve me as the new king. I knew
that Frieza would eventually have this planet taken over, and I just thought
that I would side with the winner."

He looked over at a horrified Petalia, who was trying again to get
the gag out of her mouth with her tongue. "Your people, the Astorians don't
stand a chance, even if they are Clan of Chloe. I should have taken Princess
Tayla with us, but we couldn't find her in time." He leaned closer to Petalia
and whispered, as Reccor continued to drive the skycar, "Your young aunt is
strong, Princess Petalia; I will say that. That is why Frieza wants her, and
soon the soldiers that he's sent to Calmag will take her away. No Astorian
besides her will be left. Any comments?" He then took the gag out of Petalia's
mouth to hear her replies.

"My people are the strongest race in the universe!" Petalia cried in
anguish. "Especially Tayla! Tayla helped to save our planet from the Saiyans;
she's the strongest one we have, or she will be! She was able to put you in
your place for what you did to your poor wife! I wish I could have been there
that day to witness your humiliation! I wish she had killed you then and there!
You deserved whatever Tayla gave you and more!"

Alberm's face turned red and ugly then, and he slapped Petalia hard
in her face. Caline shrieked, and Petalia was stunned. Alberm shoved the gag
back into her mouth, and he turned once again to Caline, propping her small chin
on his thick fingers.

He looked deeply into her electric-blue eyes. "You will make amends
for your treachery against me, little wife. You will not be associating with
the Astorians anymore, and Petalia is the last living Astorian that you will
ever see. Furthermore, you will-" Alberm was going to say more, but than he
heard a tiny beep on his device. He pressed a gold button on the machine,
hoping against hope that it was Frieza. His wish was granted.

"Sire, Lord Frieza, this is Alberm. Is that you?"

Frieza's voice echoed back through the ICA. "What is it, Alberm?"
he asked impatiently. "I have not heard from you and Reccor in days; I thought
that you two had died, or had been caught."

"We are fine," Alberm lied easily. "We are coming to find Zarbon
now. Do you know his location, sire?"

Frieza's voice said, "He and the others hijacked the CRP ship that
they had been prisoners on. I will contact them at once. Where are you and
Reccor at now? What is the terrain like? Are there any people around?"

"We are in the desert, one hundred miles from Magan," Alberm
replied. "Reccor and I can park near those mountain caves, just ten miles from
us. There are mountains in this desert area, sire."

"I will send Zarbon and his team to your location," Frieza told the
Calmagian spy. "Do not leave the area until they arrive."

"Sire, we have some bad news," Alberm told his liege. "The
Astorians know that your minions are coming. They are preparing to fight now."

"WHAT?" Frieza roared, his voice screaming through the ICA speaker.

"Somehow they found out that your fighters were coming to take Tayla
away," Reccor added nervously. "Don't forget sire, that Astorians can sense ki
unaided, without scouters. Perhaps, some of the more advanced of them picked up
on some of the ki levels of your fighters."

Frieza was furious-and nervous now, for he had been counting on the element of
surprise. "Any ideas on how they found out?" he wanted to know.

"Wish I knew, sire," Reccor told him quickly. "They are not people
that you want to underestimate, sire, but we have everything under control,
trust me."

"I automatically distrust anyone who says the words 'trust me',"
Frieza told the Arlian edgily. "Reccor, Alberm, you make sure to inform Zarbon
of this development when he comes to meet you. I have another question though:
my radars sensed that your method of communication was not from the scouters;
why was that? What device are you using?"

"It's called an ICA-Intergalactic Communication Assistant," Alberm
told him proudly. "It was made within my own company. I just thought that I
would try it out, and it seems to have worked wonders, wouldn't you agree?"
Alberm did not mention that the CRP officers took his and Reccor's scouters away
from them when they had been formally arrested.

"I suppose," Frieza told him icily. "I will send Zarbon and the
others to your location. You two stay out of sight and out of mind. Do not
botch this up; I am so close to my goals now that I can taste it, and now the
Astorians know we're coming. But that's all right; either way we will destroy
them! Down with Shalila Chloe and her people! Long live me!"

"Long live Lord Frieza!" Alberm and Reccor echoed, relieved that
Frieza did not know yet of their part in the Astorians finding out about
Frieza's minions coming.




6AM (Frieza Stellar Time), 8AM (Astorian Galactic Time), 10AM (Calmagian Royal
Northern Time) in the desert caves of the Camellia Desert

"THE ASTORIANS KNOW THAT WE ARE COMING?" Zarbon and Jaden exclaimed.
Jaden turned to Alberm and Reccor, and she promptly seized Alberm's fat throat
in her meaty, scaly fist. She dangled Alberm in mid-air. "How in the hell did
they find out?" Jaden roared.

Alberm was stunned speechless. He looked over to where the CRP
cruiser had landed, and to the small group of captives sitting on the sand in
front of the CRP cruiser outside of the desert cave of the Camellia Desert.
Only Lieutenant Balboun and the pilot were still alive; the other two officers
had died slowly. The two CRP officers were tied to Petalia and Caline. Pork
and Crystalis were guarding them.

Chestra was pacing nervously back and forth, as she flew, watching
the skies for anyone who might pass by in the desert and discover them. Zarbon
now had Reccor's throat in his slender hand. Zarbon and Jaden were furious,
especially Jaden, for now her brilliant plan had been exposed.

"Curse you two fools!" Zarbon hissed at Reccor. "You both will be
reported to Frieza when this is over, unless he knows already."

"He does," Reccor stammered, barely able to talk with Zarbon's hand
on his throat.

Jaden was still furious. "How did the Astorians find out that we
were coming?" She squeezed Alberm's throat tighter.

"We-we don't know," Alberm lied quickly, but for all of his
smoothness, he was a poor liar, and Jaden saw it right away. Jaden could smell
a lie from hundreds of miles away. She hated it whenever anyone lied to her,
whether it was friend or foe.

"Yes, you do!" Jaden roared. "How did the Astorians know that we
were coming?"

Alberm squeaked, "They just did!"

"HOW?" Jaden demanded. "Do you want to die tonight, fat man? How
did they know?"

Zarbon addressed Reccor, "How did they know?"

Reccor stammered, "Somehow his wife found out, and she told the
Astorians."

"His wife?" Jaden asked, surprised. "This glob of lard has a wife?
Who in the hell would want to marry him? His wife must have very poor taste."

"Where is this wife?" Zarbon asked Reccor.

Reccor pointed to where Caline was tied up with the others. "It is
the smallest girl that is his wife, the Princess Caline of Calmag."

Jaden looked over at Caline. She threw Alberm to the ground hard,
and she flew over to where Alberm's child bride was. She leaned down towards
the captives and yanked the gag out of Caline's mouth. "How did you find out
about us?"

Caline began to cry, scared by this giant alligator-woman with two
tails. "I didn't want to, believe me. It was by accident."

"You're a liability," Jaden told her coldly, "but I don't always
kill kids, not directly anyway. You're just a baby; how did you wind up falling
in love with that fat glob quivering in the sand? You have poor taste in
husbands, kid, I'm sorry."

"I was forced to marry him," Caline admitted. "My father made me."

Jaden shook her head. "I'd normally kill anyone who exposed us the
way you did, but I figure you've been punished enough, having that Calmagian
blob for a mate. Your father probably has no more brains than him. Anyway, it
doesn't really matter now; what matters is that the Astorians know that we are
coming."

"Please don't hurt them," Caline pleaded, "and please don't take
Tayla away from her family! She's my friend, and she saved my life. What have
the Astorians done to you?"

"I have nothing personal against the Astorians," Jaden told her
stiffly. "I am merely following orders. Lord Frieza has promised a big reward
to whoever captures Tayla first and clears Calmag, and we intend to get it."

"The Astorians are good people," Caline told her pleadingly. "They
have taught me so much, and they have been so good to me. Tayla showed me that
I do not have to put up with someone like Alberm. She kept telling me that
Alberm beating and raping me was wrong, and after the last time that my husband
harmed me, she challenged him and won. I owe her my life. And she has a
sister, Gracina, who has been like the mother that I lost. Do you really have
to kill Tayla's people and take Tayla from them? Why are you taking Tayla away
anyway?"

"You're full of questions," Jaden said stonily, "but to answer your
last one, Frieza wants Tayla as a fighter for him."

"Tayla does not want to fight for Frieza," Caline told her, trying to reason
with this imposing reptilian warrior. "She wants to help others and do what is
good and right. She is even willing to fight for us and with us. What do you
have against Astorians and Calmagians?"

"I said it was nothing personal," Jaden snapped, "nothing against
either race. I am simply doing what Lord Frieza tells me to do. I am nothing
more than his lackey, but that's the way it is. If you don't give us any grief,
I will spare you, but I can't speak for the other teams. The other teams are
destroying your people, as we speak."

"What do you plan to do with us?" Caline asked the Rybanese warrior.

Jaden grumbled, for she honestly didn't know what she and the others
were going to do with the captives. The sensible thing would be to kill them
all; Jaden was furious that those two idiotic spies brought the two girls along.
What was she supposed to do with them?

"Zarbon," she called to the other leader of their team, "what in the
hell are we supposed to do with these brats? Why did Alberm and Reccor have to
bring these kids here?"

Zarbon, who had thrown Reccor into the sand, was trying to think of
that himself; he and the other fighters had enough to worry about without
captives. Alberm stammered, "I simply wanted my wife back, and the other girl
was a witness, another liability."

Reccor added, "The other girl might be useful, Commander Jaden.
She's Princess Petalia Chloe, Tayla's niece and great-granddaughter of Shalila
Chloe. We could keep her as a hostage and exchange her for Tayla."

Jaden snorted at this idea. "This girl can't be as valuable; she's
not even a warrior, is she?"

"She's an Artisan," Reccor replied, "a singer."

Zarbon grumbled, "Reccor, you don't have an ounce of sense, but then
that's typical of your race. If you had to take a hostage in exchange for
Tayla, you could have at least taken someone that the Astorians would actually
want back."

Crystalis was talking to Chestra just then. "Couldn't we let the
children go, at least? They have done no harm."

Chestra was thinking the same thing, and she pitied the young girls,
but it was not her call to make. "That's up to Jaden and Zarbon." She turned
to the children. "I am going to take the gags out of your mouths, girls, if you
promise not to scream or cry for help. If you behave yourselves, it will
increase your chances of leaving us alive," she told them in a soft, kind tone.

Caline and Petalia nodded quickly in agreement, and then Chestra
removed the gags from their mouths. Petalia asked her, "What's going to happen
to us?"

Chestra couldn't answer her, and she told Petalia that she honestly
didn't know. She said to Pork, "Pork, give me your canteen, so I can give these
girls some water. Whatever their fate turns out to be, we don't need them
dehydrated." Pork obeyed her, and the girls were thankful for the water.

Caline pleaded, "Please, miss, if you will just drop us off in the
nearest city, Petalia and I can find our way back home. We won't tell anyone,
we promise. We just want to live."

Chestra smiled sadly at her. "There is nothing left for you to
tell, little one. The Astorians already know that we are coming for Tayla. Now
we have to come up with a backup plan. I will try to have your lives spared,
just do what you are told and behave yourselves. Alberm and Reccor are fools;
they should not have brought you into this mess, but since they did, we can't
let you two go right away."

"Don't make them false promises, Chestra," Jaden warned her. "I
don't want to kill a couple of helpless brats anymore than you do, but someone
else will probably do so in our place."

"They are of no use to us," Chestra pointed out to her. "Can't we
just release them in the nearest city, as this little one is asking us to do?"

Jaden sighed, "Chestra, I know how you feel about children; you've
always had too soft a heart for them. No matter where we drop them off at, they
will likely be killed. The other teams are destroying Calmag, as we speak.
These two could die two seconds after we free them, and you know that Balair's
team, Ginyu's team, and the Saiyans will show no mercy. Ideally, it would be
kinder to kill them where they sit-"

Caline and Petalia emitted horrified shrieks.

"Stop screaming, you two!" Jaden hissed. "I didn't say you were
going to die right now. I'm going to give you brats both a reality check: we
were sent to capture Princess Tayla and clear almost all life off of Calmag.
That is what Lord Frieza sent us here to do. Calmag is going to fall, and the
Calmagians will, for the most part, cease to exist, if he has his way. We are
on our way to Magan to take Tayla away. No matter what we decide to do with you
two, your lives are doomed. If we kill you two, it will be an act of mercy, for
the other teams attacking this planet won't be as quick or as kind killing you
as we would."

"Why do you have to do this?" Petalia asked. "We have done nothing
to you. We may be doomed, but couldn't we spend our last days being free as
possible? My people already know you are coming, and they will fight you, no
matter what, you know that. What do you have left to lose? There is nothing
more about you and the others that my people don't know. There is no point
holding us captive; please let us go. Caline has already endured enough with
Alberm, and she doesn't need any more of his abuse-"

"Alberm," Jaden told her stiffly, "is no longer her captor. We are
in charge now."

"What?" Alberm exclaimed. "Caline is my wife! You can do what you
want with Petalia, but Caline is my wife! I am taking her away with me; she
belongs to me, she is my property."
Caline shook her pale head wildly, and she looked pleadingly at
Chestra and Jaden. "Please," she begged, "I would rather stay here than go with
him. If I can't be free, I'd feel safer here than with him. He is so cruel-"

"Caline," Alberm told her icily, "you are my wife, and you will
learn to obey me, if I have to beat you black and blue every day to do so."

"You won't touch her again!" Petalia screamed angrily. Petalia
looked to Jaden, for she sensed that Jaden was the one with the most authority
next to Zarbon. "Don't let Alberm take her with him, please! Alberm beats and
rapes her, and he tried to kill her the last time that they were together. If
you can't release us, we would rather take our chances with you than him and
Reccor."

Jaden and Chestra looked at Zarbon, and Zarbon said resignedly, "I
will leave it up to you two, but the girls will be your worry."

Jaden and Chestra noticed the terror in Caline's blue eyes, and they
both recognized it. Alberm continued talking to his child wife, "You are my
wife, my property, and no one will take you from me, whether it is them, the
Astorians, or your family. No one will stop me from making you mine. You
belong to me, Caline, and you will learn to obey and be mine. I control whether
you live or die, what you do, when you do it, what you say, how you say it. I
can do whatever I want with you-"

Chestra was silently fuming at Alberm's words and the cold way he
was treating his own wife. Jaden closed her eyes to think, and her large, tall
alligator-like body began to shake. Jaden began to sweat and shake, as she
heard Alberm's words, for his cruel speech stirred up some words from long ago,
words that she had so wanted to forget:

"You are my property. No one will stop me from making you mine.
You belong to me, Jaden, and you will learn to obey and be mine. I control
whether you live or die, what you do, when you do it, what you say, how you say
it. I can do whatever I want with you...when I say 'jump', you ask how high.
When I say 'kiss me', you do it, when I say 'crawl', your belly should be
touching the floor. You're going to be my woman, as well as my student. You're
mine, baby..."

Jaden lost control of her emotions then and there, something that
she rarely did. Painful memories began to erupt inside her, forcing her hidden
anger and hurt to the surface. Before she knew it, she had seized Alberm by his
neck, and she punched him hard in his stomach. The others watched in shock, as
Jaden threw Alberm to the ground hard. Alberm tried to paralyze her, but Jaden
was immune to his attack, and before everyone knew it, Jaden sent a quick ki
blast through Alberm's heart, causing it to explode. Alberm died instantly.

Caline screamed in terror; she feared Alberm, but she hadn't
necessarily wanted him dead. Petalia was also shaken, but she tried to speak
consolingly to Caline the best she could. Caline began to cry, not from grief
for her dead husband, but from terror and shock.

Chestra ordered Pork to bring the canteen again, and Pork did. Chestra urged
Caline and Petalia to take the water and calm down, as she poured the water into
their mouths. Chestra told Crystalis to try to calm the girls down, if she
could. She then walked over to Jaden, who was staring down at the corpulent
corpse of Alberm's body.

Zarbon looked down at Alberm's corpse as well. He said dryly to
Jaden, "Was that really necessary? He was one of Lord Frieza's favorite spies;
you know Lord Frieza isn't going to like this."

"He'll live," Jaden told him edgily, "Lord Frieza will anyway."
Jaden was calmer now, although she was now realizing what she had done in haste.

Chestra put a hand on Jaden's shoulder. "What happened? What made
you do it? Not that Alberm is that huge of a loss, but what drove you to kill
one of Lord Frieza's spies?"

Jaden held her reptilian head up, proud, cold and stiff. She was
repressing the tears that so badly wanted to flow. "Sagash," she whispered
privately to Chestra. "Sagash said almost the exact same words to me over
twenty years ago that Alberm said to Caline just now. He said those words just
before the first time that he-he-forced himself on me."

"The bastard," Chestra whispered back, "I don't begrudge you for
killing that beast, even though I never met him. I don't begrudge you for
killing Alberm either; he's not worth his wife's tears."

"I doubt Caline is crying for that blob," Jaden said quietly.
"She's in shock; I even cried after I killed Sagash, although I never mourned
that beast. I don't feel sorry for killing either one."

She looked at Caline and Petalia, and she said to the others, "Pack up the
cruiser and let's go. No one says a word about Alberm's death until this is
over. We'll spare the girls, but we can't release them just yet. Crystalis,
Pork, get them in the cruiser; we'll decide what to do about them later."

Zarbon and Chestra followed behind Jaden, as they all walked back to
the cruiser. Reccor was trembling with fear, and Zarbon said icily to him,
"Keep your mouth shut and yourself in line, or the same will happen to you."

Reccor shakily nodded, still in shock over Alberm's untimely demise.
He dared not say a word out of fear of being the next one to perish.