A/N: About my poll so far, I want to thank those of you are taking the time to answer the questions. From what I'm gathering so far is that everyone hates Cletos, half want a Vegeta/Tayla pairing, the other half doesn't, and Dirkan, Vegeta, Tayla seem to be among the most popular characters. I hope to hear from more of you soon, and I will probably keep this poll up unti Monday, so you'll have time til then to answer.
In case, I didn't mention this before, this is an A/U which means this story may or may not entirely follow the original DBZ timeline, so don't be surprised, if I twist things around a bit, and I probably will.
I've noticed something about the character bios I wrote in "Birth of Tayla...", and some of the character bios may now be outdated, as some of the characters (such as Gorna and Rojal) have drastically changed from when I first wrote the bios. So if something doesn't match up there, remember that some of the characters have changed since then.
Well enough rambling...on with the story!
Chapter Eighty-One: Tying Up Loose Ends
The Magan Castle ballroom...
"If anyone else here leaves, everyone dies! Are we making ourselves clear?" Dodoria demanded angrily to the remaining hostages, which consisted mainly of adults now. Between Steak, Caline, and Kekron, they had succeeded in getting almost all of the children, both Astorian and Calmagian, to safety.
Only Pork and Crystalis now remained out of the young people, and they knew that they couldn't have escaped right away because Balair would notice them gone in a heartbeat. Ham and Steak would not leave them, and Steak was barely alive now; Dodoria had beaten the Meatian warrior to a bloody pulp, and he would have killed him, had Ham not intervened. Dodoria beat on Ham as well with his giant, pink fists, giving him a black eye, breaking his jaw and spraining his arm. Pork cried and tried to stop Dodoria from hurting his father and brother, but that earned him a cuff across his face.
"You and that ugly brown thing that you call Crystalis are traitors-traitors that Frieza will obliterate once we win this war!" Dodoria declared furiously, watching a sitting Crystalis hold a bloodied Steak's head in her lap. Steak's dark pine-green blood did not go well with his scarlet hair and eyes, and the dark blood was coating him from head to toe. He had two black eyes, a bloody nose, a broken cheekbone, three broken ribs, and a broken arm. Crystalis was wiping him down with a damp rag and tending to him the best that she could. Ham was standing up near them, his fists clenched, but he did not dare to challenge the hated fat, pink Top Elite officer again.
"When the Astorians come, you'll be sorry!" he dared to cry out furiously.
"Shut up!" Dodoria growled.
At that moment, a young woman came stumbling into the ballroom, and the Elite officers gasped when they saw her. She would have been beautiful had not her blue-and-silver-hair had been snarled, and bruises covered her slender, tall body. Her onyx eyes glowed in fury and humiliation, as she brushed debris and dust from her aqua and silvery hair with a scratched up, slim hand that was encrusted with crystal blue jewel nails. Several of her front clear blue teeth were missing, and she was barely able to walk.
"D-Diamonique?" Dodoria asked.
"Hey Dime!" Bhodie cried out cheerfully, and his greeting earned him a black scowl from the deadly Gemstarian warrior.
"That slut-whore, Tayla Chloe, will pay for what she did to me! She'll pay for marring my beauty!" Diamonique hissed.
"Diamonique, we thought that you had died," Dodoria told her, astonished. "Jaden and Chestra reported you as possibly being dead. What the hell happened to you?"
"Tayla Chloe happened to me, that's what! I hate her, I hate her, and I hate her! She fired off a giant ki blast at me that trapped me in an avalanche! I almost died because of that little slutzini-"
"What the hell is a slutzini?" Bhodie wanted to know.
"It's Astorian for 'slut who opens her legs for any man'," Dodoria explained to him. "I know that because Diamonique complained that Vegeta had once called her that.
Bhodie laughed good-naturedly. "A slutzini, eh? Hey, Dime, looks like you and the little Princess of Chloe that we're trying to capture have something in common! Hell, I didn't think a twelve-year-old girl would be screwing around already, but I lost my virginity when I was a year or so older than she is now, so-"
"Shut up!" Diamonique screamed. "I am no slutzini! I am Lady Diamonique of the Diamondian Tribe, the Elite Tribe of Gemstar! And stop calling me Dime, you little Human earthworm!"
"Hey, hey, take it easy, lady" Bhodie declared with a chuckle.
Diamonique looked contemptuously at the Meatian men and Crystalis. "What the hell happened to them?"
"Those Meatians got what they deserved," Dodoria told her. "I knew that we should have killed off every single one. Just like Astories, they don't know when to die!"
"Crystalis seems awfully chummy with them," she observed.
"Crystalis is a traitor who will be punished severely when we return, if she's not killed. And so is Pork. They actually had the nerve to turn to the side of the Astorians and the other Meatians until Balair intervened. Speaking of Balair, where is he?"
"Oh, who cares?" Diamonique said, annoyed. "Let's just find that Astorie brat, Tayla Chloe, so I can give her what she deserves! I'll claw her and beat her before we hand her over to Lord Frieza!"
"Easy, Diamonique," Dodoria counseled her. "Remember that Lord Frieza said she was to be brought to him unharmed, untouched, and unmolested. He'll send you to the next dimension if you harm her unnecessarily. Just be patient; we'll find the girl soon enough."
"Not soon enough for me," Diamonique snapped.
"Well, that's it," a resigned Hazel sighed to Natala when the Ginyu Force had began to herd everyone to the front of the ballroom away from the "restroom" (kitchenette leading to the labyrinths). "It's over now." The Ginyu Force was now standing guard in front of the remaining hostages, as everyone was forced to sit down on the cold, marble floor in huddles. Natala and Hazel were near the front, and Hazel kept giving Bhodie wary looks, worried that he would come for her any second.
Natala took Hazel's hand and allowed herself to smile briefly, for she sensed a familiar ki just miles away. She smiled wider when she recognized it.
"We're going to be okay, Hazel, I can just feel it. Even though we can't get any more people out of here, we're going to be okay!" Natala cried happily. She embraced her aunt-by-marriage warmly. "Raakon is here; I can feel him, he's here," she whispered joyously.
"Can you sense Gohan?" Hazel asked worriedly.
Natala saddened then. "I'm afraid that I can't. I can sense him nowhere, my dear. I am sorry."
"I hope that he's okay."
"Let's pray so, my dear. Raakon's uncle is a very strong warrior and police officer; I am sure that he is safe somewhere."
"I hope he's still alive, and I hope that everyone made it out okay. How many hostages are left here, do you think?"
"Over three-hundred, I'm afraid, still, but at least most of the children and elderly are out. Almost all of our people are out of here, except for you, Marya, the Meatians, and me. Marya insisted on staying for now to console the remaining captives. I hope that Kekron and Caline decided to leave instead of coming back here; I can sense their ki signatures, but they are much farther away now then before. Also-" Natala was interrupted when she felt Balair's ki coming closer and closer, and before she knew it, the menacing Sistrai warrior was standing in front of her, angry, with sweat pouring down his iridescent scarlet scales.
"B-Balair-" she stammered, just before Balair roughly seized her by her right arm and dragged her to her feet. Natala desperately tried to cling to the green bedspread that she had used to cover herself, but it was starting to slip from her slender, cinnamon-skinned body. He seized her throat in his large, meaty burgundy fist, with his thick fingers encircling her slim, tall neck.
"You will pay for your acts of treachery, wench! I would have been doing to this to your little Caline right now, but your hubby just had to come along and intervene! I'll give that brat of yours, that boy credit! The little bastard broke my toe, and he'll pay for it later, but for right now, it's time for you to serve your sentence! I'll wait no longer for you; we're going upstairs now! And this time, I'm getting action from you, no talking, and no question-and-answer sections! Just good, hard screwing! You are mine now, and your hubby may have won the battle, but he won't win the war!"
"Let me go!" Natala hissed in fury, not in a mood to try to appease him now. "You better not even think of touching me again because my husband is close, and he will-" Balair slapped her across her lovely face.
"Shut up! You're coming with me, and if you don't do what you are told or resist me in any way, I'll start killing everyone in here, one by one, got it? I'm serious now, wench, and when we get upstairs, we're going to mate, not chat, so I don't want any of your two million questions about my life or whatever, got it?"
Natala looked deep into Balair's glowing yellow eyes, which seemed to her at this moment windows into a fiery hell. Her bravado began to fade slowly, when she realized that Balair was serious this time. No entertaining, no talking, none of her methods of persuasion would delay him any longer. He was in a foul mood, in a mood to kill her, if he wanted to.
"You don't come with me now, I'll start with your friend's life, and I don't care if Bhode wants her for his whore or not; she dies, if you don't comply, is that clear? Understand?"
Natala nodded slowly.
"Good girl; now if you'll be nice to me, I'll be nice to you. But little talk, no questions, just some sweet screwing to make us both happy. A man gets tired of talk and questions. Let's go!"
"You bastard!" Hazel screamed. "You let her go!"
"Hazel, please," Natala told her pleadingly. She took Balair's arm, trying not to flinch at touching him. "Balair, you don't have to be so rough, you really don't. I'll come with you," she told him as steadily as possible.
"You better; you're my woman now, and I'll finish off your hubby eventually. Until then, you and I are going to have some fun, sweetness," Balair declared triumphantly, as he dragged Natala away from Hazel and out of the ballroom.
On one of Frieza's hospital cruisers…
"I'm glad that we thought of taking a hospital cruiser as our method of transport," Skale commented to Minosh, who was busy entering figures into a computer in the control panel.
"Sure, yeah, sure," Minosh said politely, trying to pay as little attention to Skale as possible, for he tended to look down on the Rezdakian Technical Officer.
The hospital cruiser was a triangular, two-story gold ship with the latest medical technology suited for just about any occasion and any species. Skale and Minosh had taken a team of the best Medical Officers with them to planet Calmag, and they had found the Ginyu Girls first. Dr. Patina (Patina was her first name), a Gemstarian doctor from the Silver Tribe (two levels below the Elite Diamondian tribe and a tribe which normally had the best medical personnel) had led the medical team to Calmag, and she and her staff had been treating the Ginyu Girls for their injuries. They had met up with Jaden and Chestra in the Mountains of Ensley, and with Chestra's help, they had been able to find the severely wounded Saiyans and put them on the ship. The four Saiyans were now in two separate hospital rooms, with the three men in one and Journa in another. The Ginyu Girls occupied three rooms, and Jaden and Chestra shared a room. All of the patients were hooked up to I.V. needles, and they were having their vital signs, blood pressure, breathing rate, and heart rates monitored closely.
Dr. Patina, like most Gemstarian women, was beautiful; she had dark, long, curly eggplant-purple hair with violet streaks in it and large black diamond eyes and high cheekbones with a tiny, pointed nose and pouty pale blue lips. She also was tall, had the peach-blue skin, the crystal blue teeth, and the deadly diamond nails (which she had never used as a weapon on anyone). She was Dr. Katsen's second-in-command, and as excellent a doctor as he was. She was a no-nonsense physician, who had no qualms about rebuking or restraining difficult patients, and she did not fear the Saiyans, no matter how hard a time they gave her.
The Saiyans were her most difficult patients because they had wanted to get back to fighting once they had been released from the healing tanks, but Dr. Patina refused to allow them to leave. She said that they needed to rest, and they were going to do so, no matter what. Even Vegeta's death threats did not faze her, for like Diamonique, she could turn them into diamond statues (something that she had to occasionally do with rowdy patients). After turning Nappa into a diamond statue briefly to prove her point and then reversing the spell, the grumpy Saiyans reluctantly agreed to stay in bed, even though Vegeta continued to plot her demise.
But Commander Jaden could be just as difficult as the Saiyan quartet that had given Dr. Patina such a hard time. Jaden kept insisting angrily that she was well enough to go back and fight, but Dr. Patina also stood her ground with the fierce Rybanese warrior. It was Commander Chestra's convincing Jaden to listen to the good doctor that finally made Jaden calm down and rest. If Chestra had not intervened, the Gemstarian doctor would have been a glass sculpture by now.
Dr. Patina finally released Chestra from her care and said that Chestra could go back and fight now, if she wanted. Chestra would have, but Frieza had ordered her to stay on the medical cruiser until he gave further instructions. Chestra opted until then to stay in Jaden's room, where Jaden was sulking because she wanted to back and fight.
"Consider this a well-deserved break," Chestra told her best friend cheerfully with a smile, as she lounged in a pink, velvet-like chair near Jaden's sterile white hospital bed.
"Yeah, break-as in Lord Frieza's going to break my neck!" Jaden growled. "Curse Dr. Patina! She's making me stay here just to torture me! I know that I'm well enough to go back and fight!"
"Doctors know best," Chestra said calmly. "If she is keeping you here, then it's probably for a good reason. Just rest and relax for now, Jaden; worry about Lord Frieza when we get back."
"I hope that the others succeed where we couldn't," Jaden told her wearily, finally agreeing to go to sleep and close her eyes.
"I hope that Zarbon is okay," Chestra said concernedly, wondering about her love.
"He'll be fine," Jaden murmured sleepily, just before she fell asleep. (Dr. Patina had put some sedative in her I.V. needle to calm the Rybanese warrior [and keep her from wrecking everything in sight].) Chestra was grateful for that; maybe when Jaden woke up, she'd be in a good mood (well as good as a mood that the normally difficult Jaden could ever be in).
Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz's hospital room
"I'll send that doctor into the next dimension when I get out of here!" Vegeta declared furiously. "I am well now, and I want to finish my fight with Tayla!"
"I'm afraid that Tayla pretty much finished it for you, Prince," Raditz said recklessly, as he turned over away from Vegeta to make himself more comfortable. "Just relax, Vegeta, and rest for once; there' s nothing more that we can do. And you can't kill Dr. Patina 'cause she's one of Lord Frieza's favorite Medical people, and to kill any of Frieza's favorites is like signing your own death warrant."
"I'll sign that Tayla's death warrant once I get back to her!" Vegeta growled. "One day, I will show her that I am superior to her! I will become stronger than her, and when I do, I will show her once and for all who is the strongest fighter, an Elite Saiyan fighter, a Prince! No Princess of Chloe is going to be stronger than me forever!"
"I'd like to get back at that Namek, Dirkan, for what he did to me!" Nappa roared from the hospital bed next to Vegeta's. "Who ever thought that I could be defeated by some green slug? He'll pay for that next time we meet! What does Shalila Chloe see in him, I can't imagine?"
"That Namek must be good in bed is all I can say!" Raditz chortled.
"Yeah, but I thought that Nameks were supposed to be asexual," Nappa stated. "I thought that they couldn't get it on with anybody."
"You both are fools," Vegeta told them. "Nameks cannot reproduce the same way other species can, that's true, but they can mate, although it is very rare that they do. Anyway, enough about the Namek, now we have to figure out to explain that pink-and-white lizard we call Frieza why once again Tayla and her family defeated us! I'm glad that we are not within his range at this moment, the old bastard!"
"Hey, Prince, do you think that we three are strong enough to take him now?" Nappa asked.
"Not yet, Nappa, not yet. I have to plan this carefully because we will only get one chance to give him what he richly deserves. One day, we will topple him and Zarbon and Dodoria and the rest of most of the Top Elite. Until then, we must continue to grow stronger. But right now, we can't afford to do anything foolish."
"So any ideas so far, Prince?" Raditz asked.
"Well, I am-shut up now, boys, Dr. Patina is coming; we can't allow her to repeat what we say to Frieza. Quiet now!" Vegeta ordered, as Dr. Patina entered the room, carrying a tray of pills in little plastic cups.
"Hello gentlemen," she told them pleasantly. "I trust that you are taking this time to rest-or are you still plotting my death?" The no-nonsense doctor had a wry sense of humor when she chose to use it. She gave each of the men a cup of pills, which Nappa and Raditz reluctantly took.
Vegeta looked at the pills suspiciously, and he glared at the doctor. "What the hell are these?"
"My, my, such language. Well, the pink pill is a sedative, and the red pill is a painkiller. Either way, you three boys are going to sleep. Goodnight!" she said brightly, as she started to leave.
"Wait, woman!" Vegeta called after her. "How is my sister?" He grudgingly took the pills after he had asked her.
"My name is Dr. Patina, not woman," Dr. Patina told him curtly. "And as for your sister, she is well, and just as vocal and feisty as you and your friends. Like you, she wants to get back and fight, but she's not going anywhere either."
"We are Saiyans, WOMAN," Vegeta told her sharply. "And Saiyans are warriors, not sluggards; and we want out of here."
"That will be enough, young man. Go to sleep," Dr. Patina ordered briskly, and Vegeta scowled darkly at her. He hated it when anyone referred to him as "young man".
Eclipse tottered to the entranceway of the room. "Dr. Patina, may I please see Nappa for a few moments?" she asked softly.
Dr. Patina said, "Just for a few minutes, Lady Eclipse, and then you should get back to bed yourself. I didn't release you entirely yet; I just allowed you to walk about for a bit. If you feel tired or whatever, get back to bed. Maybe you can talk some sense into these three." And with that, the Gemstarian doctor left, as Eclipse pulled up a folding chair to Nappa's bed. She leaned over and kissed him gently on his lips.
"Ah…" Nappa sighed contentedly. "Now that is a real cure!"
Eclipse smiled, as she took Nappa's large, muscular hand into her small, slender one. The big Saiyan pulled Eclipse's tiny hand to his lips and kissed it. "So, gorgeous, I was starting to worry I'd never see you again," Nappa told her.
"Dr. Patina told me that you almost died; I was worried myself. But then there isn't much that can kill a Saiyan, is there?" Eclipse said happily, as she noticed Nappa scooting away from her to the other side of the bed. He patted the side next to him invitingly, indicating that he wanted Eclipse to lie down besides him, and Eclipse did so. She lay on the bed next to her hunky Saiyan warrior and snuggled close. Nappa wrapped his huge arms around her waist, leaned over and whispered something in Eclipse's ear. Eclipse blushed slightly, a violet tinge touching her cheeks (Gemstarians always blushed a light violet color, even those of mixed breed).
"You sure you don't mind being exclusive?" Nappa asked her gruffly. "Because I won't be sharing you with any other man after this anymore; I'll blast any male who even thinks of touching you."
"I don't mind having you as my one and only," Eclipse responded softly in a giggle. "I'll be breaking a lot of hearts when we get back, but they'll live!"
Nappa laughed, and then suddenly he leaned over and sank his teeth into the base of Eclipse's peach-blue neck. The Ginyu Girl Squad Leader cried out in pain, but the pain slowly lessened, as Nappa lapped at her wound, sending pleasant shivers down her spine. Eclipse curled into her new mate, as Nappa pulled her closer to him.
Vegeta tried to pay as little attention as possible to this tender scene, but he couldn't help it. He just hoped that Nappa knew what he was doing. Nappa had officially made Eclipse his mate, and now they were bonded for life. The young prince shook his head at this; didn't Raditz and Nappa and Journa know how dangerous it was for them to have a permanent mate right now? Nappa and Raditz apparently didn't realize that a woman, a permanent mate, could be tortured or abused by Frieza should either man displease the cruel warlord. Journa and Raditz didn't realize just how much danger they were putting themselves in, and obviously Nappa and Eclipse didn't either. Frieza could use a permanent mate against the three subordinate Saiyans, should they ever refuse an order or get out of line. Having a regular mate made one vulnerable, and Vegeta was glad at this time that he did not have one. It was too risky to have one, and an everyday bedmate was too much trouble to have right now, as she would interfere with the time for Vegeta's training and fighting.
He just hoped that Raditz, Nappa, and Journa remembered that all of the Saiyans were still under Frieza's no-procreation order. Vegeta was just thankful that Frieza didn't put them under a no-copulation order as well, or he and the other two Saiyan men would have gone crazy.
"He's gone," Gohan told Jaca, Herkon, and Kiran, who had been fighting with him. "There's nothing more that we can do." Prince Gohan Chloe was kneeling on the ground, sadly holding the head of a dead Astorian warrior in his arms. This Astorian had been an unobtrusive, but nevertheless an important personage.
"How's Aunt Gorna going to take this?" Jaca asked worriedly. Jaca Chloe was the daughter of Ralia Chloe, Gorna's sister, who had been killed during the invasion of the Korin. Her father was raising Jaca, but he worked for Intergalacticpol, and he was on one of the search-and-rescue teams that were trying to find Jaca's Uncle Jaypros and Aunt Farla, so Jaca had been staying with Gohan and Hazel.
Thirteen-year-old Jaca had golden-brown hair and emerald eyes the same shade as Dirkan's skin, and she was as tall as Gracina with a sturdy and muscular figure with very few curves. She was an average warrior, one who was good enough to kill weaker enemies, but not someone who had the potential to become as strong as Tayla, Riccan, Rojal, or Dedron. She stood next to Kiran, touching hands with him. Fourteen-year-old Kiran was Bendros' younger brother, and he was average looking with mousy brown hair and dull black eyes. He was short and stout, and while he was pleasant enough to look it, the plain boy had not been blessed with his eldest brother's good looks. He and Jaca were becoming more than friends; they were falling in love with each other.
Kiran's short tail waved gently in the wind, as he stood in a green and silver fighting gi (green and silver were the Clan of Sahara colors). He shook his head mournfully; he noticed Prince Gohan Chloe, Chief of Intergalacticpol, sadly look over the recently dead body of one of their comrades. This man had just died after fighting the Sistrai warrior named Taguar, whom he had broken his tail. Taguar, the only Upper Low-Level to survive the onslaught so far had avenged himself by using a special technique known to him as Fire Marble Shower. Taguar had released a small disk of ki the size of a mini-Frisbee that had hovered above the Astorian victim's head. Before the Astorian warrior could fight back, Taguar had shouted out the name of the attack, and the ki disk rained small, deadly balls of fire down upon the hapless Astorian fighter, forcing his temperature to go up a hundred degrees hotter than what it should be. The helpless fighter died quickly before anyone could save him, and when the attack had been completed, he was nothing more than a corpse covered with black, third-degree burn marks.
The furious children had avenged their comrade by attacking Taguar at once with their swords, and it had been Jaca, the average warrior, who had chopped off Taguar's head with her sword. Taguar's head was now resting in a mud puddle, and the rest of his body had been burned away by Herkon's ki blast. Taguar had been only as one-fifth as strong as Balair, his cousin, and if he had been strong as Balair, he would have still lived. Jaca had killed him all too easily.
Now all of Taguar's team were dead, but then so was their comrade, the first known Astorian casualty in this war on Calmag.
Gohan looked down sadly at the older man lying in his arms. The indigo blood had long dried up, and it stained what was left of his clothes. The Astorian man, a Prince of Chloe, had not been much to look at, for he had been short and scrawny with an ugly face that contained a fat nose with a dark brown receding hairline. His only redeeming feature had been his green eyes, his handsome green eyes that were even greener than Jaca's, the color of sun-kissed grass. It had been those eyes and his once smooth manner that had made his wife fall in love with him, even though he was no longer attractive to her. He had let his wife rule over him, and he had not pleased her too well; while he had been alive, he knew that their grandfather had not thought much about him.
Now he was gone forever, someone that no one had really paid attention to except when it came to certain royal matters. He had been someone whom his wife would grieve sincerely for, but she would quickly move on, for the passion and love had faded away years ago, and they had not slept together in two years.
He had been a man whom his siblings and cousins had regarded as a cowardly warrior, and indeed he had been for most of his life, but he had fought bravely in the end. He would never get a chance to fully redeem himself.
"Poor Gorna," Gohan said wearily. "How am I supposed to explain to her that her husband, Etros, has died? I know that she is a strong woman, but this will still come as a shock."
Gohan, using a ki blast, then blasted a hole in the soft, brown ground deep enough for a grave. Within an hour, he and the others had buried Prince Etros Chloe, the once future Superior Granden of Astoria, who would have ruled with his wife when Princess Gorna Chloe had taken the throne in her grandmother's place.
"It's time to go now, children," he said softly. "We must worry now about those who live."
And with that, they slowly and sadly flew into the air and away from Etros Chloe's grave.
In case, I didn't mention this before, this is an A/U which means this story may or may not entirely follow the original DBZ timeline, so don't be surprised, if I twist things around a bit, and I probably will.
I've noticed something about the character bios I wrote in "Birth of Tayla...", and some of the character bios may now be outdated, as some of the characters (such as Gorna and Rojal) have drastically changed from when I first wrote the bios. So if something doesn't match up there, remember that some of the characters have changed since then.
Well enough rambling...on with the story!
Chapter Eighty-One: Tying Up Loose Ends
The Magan Castle ballroom...
"If anyone else here leaves, everyone dies! Are we making ourselves clear?" Dodoria demanded angrily to the remaining hostages, which consisted mainly of adults now. Between Steak, Caline, and Kekron, they had succeeded in getting almost all of the children, both Astorian and Calmagian, to safety.
Only Pork and Crystalis now remained out of the young people, and they knew that they couldn't have escaped right away because Balair would notice them gone in a heartbeat. Ham and Steak would not leave them, and Steak was barely alive now; Dodoria had beaten the Meatian warrior to a bloody pulp, and he would have killed him, had Ham not intervened. Dodoria beat on Ham as well with his giant, pink fists, giving him a black eye, breaking his jaw and spraining his arm. Pork cried and tried to stop Dodoria from hurting his father and brother, but that earned him a cuff across his face.
"You and that ugly brown thing that you call Crystalis are traitors-traitors that Frieza will obliterate once we win this war!" Dodoria declared furiously, watching a sitting Crystalis hold a bloodied Steak's head in her lap. Steak's dark pine-green blood did not go well with his scarlet hair and eyes, and the dark blood was coating him from head to toe. He had two black eyes, a bloody nose, a broken cheekbone, three broken ribs, and a broken arm. Crystalis was wiping him down with a damp rag and tending to him the best that she could. Ham was standing up near them, his fists clenched, but he did not dare to challenge the hated fat, pink Top Elite officer again.
"When the Astorians come, you'll be sorry!" he dared to cry out furiously.
"Shut up!" Dodoria growled.
At that moment, a young woman came stumbling into the ballroom, and the Elite officers gasped when they saw her. She would have been beautiful had not her blue-and-silver-hair had been snarled, and bruises covered her slender, tall body. Her onyx eyes glowed in fury and humiliation, as she brushed debris and dust from her aqua and silvery hair with a scratched up, slim hand that was encrusted with crystal blue jewel nails. Several of her front clear blue teeth were missing, and she was barely able to walk.
"D-Diamonique?" Dodoria asked.
"Hey Dime!" Bhodie cried out cheerfully, and his greeting earned him a black scowl from the deadly Gemstarian warrior.
"That slut-whore, Tayla Chloe, will pay for what she did to me! She'll pay for marring my beauty!" Diamonique hissed.
"Diamonique, we thought that you had died," Dodoria told her, astonished. "Jaden and Chestra reported you as possibly being dead. What the hell happened to you?"
"Tayla Chloe happened to me, that's what! I hate her, I hate her, and I hate her! She fired off a giant ki blast at me that trapped me in an avalanche! I almost died because of that little slutzini-"
"What the hell is a slutzini?" Bhodie wanted to know.
"It's Astorian for 'slut who opens her legs for any man'," Dodoria explained to him. "I know that because Diamonique complained that Vegeta had once called her that.
Bhodie laughed good-naturedly. "A slutzini, eh? Hey, Dime, looks like you and the little Princess of Chloe that we're trying to capture have something in common! Hell, I didn't think a twelve-year-old girl would be screwing around already, but I lost my virginity when I was a year or so older than she is now, so-"
"Shut up!" Diamonique screamed. "I am no slutzini! I am Lady Diamonique of the Diamondian Tribe, the Elite Tribe of Gemstar! And stop calling me Dime, you little Human earthworm!"
"Hey, hey, take it easy, lady" Bhodie declared with a chuckle.
Diamonique looked contemptuously at the Meatian men and Crystalis. "What the hell happened to them?"
"Those Meatians got what they deserved," Dodoria told her. "I knew that we should have killed off every single one. Just like Astories, they don't know when to die!"
"Crystalis seems awfully chummy with them," she observed.
"Crystalis is a traitor who will be punished severely when we return, if she's not killed. And so is Pork. They actually had the nerve to turn to the side of the Astorians and the other Meatians until Balair intervened. Speaking of Balair, where is he?"
"Oh, who cares?" Diamonique said, annoyed. "Let's just find that Astorie brat, Tayla Chloe, so I can give her what she deserves! I'll claw her and beat her before we hand her over to Lord Frieza!"
"Easy, Diamonique," Dodoria counseled her. "Remember that Lord Frieza said she was to be brought to him unharmed, untouched, and unmolested. He'll send you to the next dimension if you harm her unnecessarily. Just be patient; we'll find the girl soon enough."
"Not soon enough for me," Diamonique snapped.
"Well, that's it," a resigned Hazel sighed to Natala when the Ginyu Force had began to herd everyone to the front of the ballroom away from the "restroom" (kitchenette leading to the labyrinths). "It's over now." The Ginyu Force was now standing guard in front of the remaining hostages, as everyone was forced to sit down on the cold, marble floor in huddles. Natala and Hazel were near the front, and Hazel kept giving Bhodie wary looks, worried that he would come for her any second.
Natala took Hazel's hand and allowed herself to smile briefly, for she sensed a familiar ki just miles away. She smiled wider when she recognized it.
"We're going to be okay, Hazel, I can just feel it. Even though we can't get any more people out of here, we're going to be okay!" Natala cried happily. She embraced her aunt-by-marriage warmly. "Raakon is here; I can feel him, he's here," she whispered joyously.
"Can you sense Gohan?" Hazel asked worriedly.
Natala saddened then. "I'm afraid that I can't. I can sense him nowhere, my dear. I am sorry."
"I hope that he's okay."
"Let's pray so, my dear. Raakon's uncle is a very strong warrior and police officer; I am sure that he is safe somewhere."
"I hope he's still alive, and I hope that everyone made it out okay. How many hostages are left here, do you think?"
"Over three-hundred, I'm afraid, still, but at least most of the children and elderly are out. Almost all of our people are out of here, except for you, Marya, the Meatians, and me. Marya insisted on staying for now to console the remaining captives. I hope that Kekron and Caline decided to leave instead of coming back here; I can sense their ki signatures, but they are much farther away now then before. Also-" Natala was interrupted when she felt Balair's ki coming closer and closer, and before she knew it, the menacing Sistrai warrior was standing in front of her, angry, with sweat pouring down his iridescent scarlet scales.
"B-Balair-" she stammered, just before Balair roughly seized her by her right arm and dragged her to her feet. Natala desperately tried to cling to the green bedspread that she had used to cover herself, but it was starting to slip from her slender, cinnamon-skinned body. He seized her throat in his large, meaty burgundy fist, with his thick fingers encircling her slim, tall neck.
"You will pay for your acts of treachery, wench! I would have been doing to this to your little Caline right now, but your hubby just had to come along and intervene! I'll give that brat of yours, that boy credit! The little bastard broke my toe, and he'll pay for it later, but for right now, it's time for you to serve your sentence! I'll wait no longer for you; we're going upstairs now! And this time, I'm getting action from you, no talking, and no question-and-answer sections! Just good, hard screwing! You are mine now, and your hubby may have won the battle, but he won't win the war!"
"Let me go!" Natala hissed in fury, not in a mood to try to appease him now. "You better not even think of touching me again because my husband is close, and he will-" Balair slapped her across her lovely face.
"Shut up! You're coming with me, and if you don't do what you are told or resist me in any way, I'll start killing everyone in here, one by one, got it? I'm serious now, wench, and when we get upstairs, we're going to mate, not chat, so I don't want any of your two million questions about my life or whatever, got it?"
Natala looked deep into Balair's glowing yellow eyes, which seemed to her at this moment windows into a fiery hell. Her bravado began to fade slowly, when she realized that Balair was serious this time. No entertaining, no talking, none of her methods of persuasion would delay him any longer. He was in a foul mood, in a mood to kill her, if he wanted to.
"You don't come with me now, I'll start with your friend's life, and I don't care if Bhode wants her for his whore or not; she dies, if you don't comply, is that clear? Understand?"
Natala nodded slowly.
"Good girl; now if you'll be nice to me, I'll be nice to you. But little talk, no questions, just some sweet screwing to make us both happy. A man gets tired of talk and questions. Let's go!"
"You bastard!" Hazel screamed. "You let her go!"
"Hazel, please," Natala told her pleadingly. She took Balair's arm, trying not to flinch at touching him. "Balair, you don't have to be so rough, you really don't. I'll come with you," she told him as steadily as possible.
"You better; you're my woman now, and I'll finish off your hubby eventually. Until then, you and I are going to have some fun, sweetness," Balair declared triumphantly, as he dragged Natala away from Hazel and out of the ballroom.
On one of Frieza's hospital cruisers…
"I'm glad that we thought of taking a hospital cruiser as our method of transport," Skale commented to Minosh, who was busy entering figures into a computer in the control panel.
"Sure, yeah, sure," Minosh said politely, trying to pay as little attention to Skale as possible, for he tended to look down on the Rezdakian Technical Officer.
The hospital cruiser was a triangular, two-story gold ship with the latest medical technology suited for just about any occasion and any species. Skale and Minosh had taken a team of the best Medical Officers with them to planet Calmag, and they had found the Ginyu Girls first. Dr. Patina (Patina was her first name), a Gemstarian doctor from the Silver Tribe (two levels below the Elite Diamondian tribe and a tribe which normally had the best medical personnel) had led the medical team to Calmag, and she and her staff had been treating the Ginyu Girls for their injuries. They had met up with Jaden and Chestra in the Mountains of Ensley, and with Chestra's help, they had been able to find the severely wounded Saiyans and put them on the ship. The four Saiyans were now in two separate hospital rooms, with the three men in one and Journa in another. The Ginyu Girls occupied three rooms, and Jaden and Chestra shared a room. All of the patients were hooked up to I.V. needles, and they were having their vital signs, blood pressure, breathing rate, and heart rates monitored closely.
Dr. Patina, like most Gemstarian women, was beautiful; she had dark, long, curly eggplant-purple hair with violet streaks in it and large black diamond eyes and high cheekbones with a tiny, pointed nose and pouty pale blue lips. She also was tall, had the peach-blue skin, the crystal blue teeth, and the deadly diamond nails (which she had never used as a weapon on anyone). She was Dr. Katsen's second-in-command, and as excellent a doctor as he was. She was a no-nonsense physician, who had no qualms about rebuking or restraining difficult patients, and she did not fear the Saiyans, no matter how hard a time they gave her.
The Saiyans were her most difficult patients because they had wanted to get back to fighting once they had been released from the healing tanks, but Dr. Patina refused to allow them to leave. She said that they needed to rest, and they were going to do so, no matter what. Even Vegeta's death threats did not faze her, for like Diamonique, she could turn them into diamond statues (something that she had to occasionally do with rowdy patients). After turning Nappa into a diamond statue briefly to prove her point and then reversing the spell, the grumpy Saiyans reluctantly agreed to stay in bed, even though Vegeta continued to plot her demise.
But Commander Jaden could be just as difficult as the Saiyan quartet that had given Dr. Patina such a hard time. Jaden kept insisting angrily that she was well enough to go back and fight, but Dr. Patina also stood her ground with the fierce Rybanese warrior. It was Commander Chestra's convincing Jaden to listen to the good doctor that finally made Jaden calm down and rest. If Chestra had not intervened, the Gemstarian doctor would have been a glass sculpture by now.
Dr. Patina finally released Chestra from her care and said that Chestra could go back and fight now, if she wanted. Chestra would have, but Frieza had ordered her to stay on the medical cruiser until he gave further instructions. Chestra opted until then to stay in Jaden's room, where Jaden was sulking because she wanted to back and fight.
"Consider this a well-deserved break," Chestra told her best friend cheerfully with a smile, as she lounged in a pink, velvet-like chair near Jaden's sterile white hospital bed.
"Yeah, break-as in Lord Frieza's going to break my neck!" Jaden growled. "Curse Dr. Patina! She's making me stay here just to torture me! I know that I'm well enough to go back and fight!"
"Doctors know best," Chestra said calmly. "If she is keeping you here, then it's probably for a good reason. Just rest and relax for now, Jaden; worry about Lord Frieza when we get back."
"I hope that the others succeed where we couldn't," Jaden told her wearily, finally agreeing to go to sleep and close her eyes.
"I hope that Zarbon is okay," Chestra said concernedly, wondering about her love.
"He'll be fine," Jaden murmured sleepily, just before she fell asleep. (Dr. Patina had put some sedative in her I.V. needle to calm the Rybanese warrior [and keep her from wrecking everything in sight].) Chestra was grateful for that; maybe when Jaden woke up, she'd be in a good mood (well as good as a mood that the normally difficult Jaden could ever be in).
Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz's hospital room
"I'll send that doctor into the next dimension when I get out of here!" Vegeta declared furiously. "I am well now, and I want to finish my fight with Tayla!"
"I'm afraid that Tayla pretty much finished it for you, Prince," Raditz said recklessly, as he turned over away from Vegeta to make himself more comfortable. "Just relax, Vegeta, and rest for once; there' s nothing more that we can do. And you can't kill Dr. Patina 'cause she's one of Lord Frieza's favorite Medical people, and to kill any of Frieza's favorites is like signing your own death warrant."
"I'll sign that Tayla's death warrant once I get back to her!" Vegeta growled. "One day, I will show her that I am superior to her! I will become stronger than her, and when I do, I will show her once and for all who is the strongest fighter, an Elite Saiyan fighter, a Prince! No Princess of Chloe is going to be stronger than me forever!"
"I'd like to get back at that Namek, Dirkan, for what he did to me!" Nappa roared from the hospital bed next to Vegeta's. "Who ever thought that I could be defeated by some green slug? He'll pay for that next time we meet! What does Shalila Chloe see in him, I can't imagine?"
"That Namek must be good in bed is all I can say!" Raditz chortled.
"Yeah, but I thought that Nameks were supposed to be asexual," Nappa stated. "I thought that they couldn't get it on with anybody."
"You both are fools," Vegeta told them. "Nameks cannot reproduce the same way other species can, that's true, but they can mate, although it is very rare that they do. Anyway, enough about the Namek, now we have to figure out to explain that pink-and-white lizard we call Frieza why once again Tayla and her family defeated us! I'm glad that we are not within his range at this moment, the old bastard!"
"Hey, Prince, do you think that we three are strong enough to take him now?" Nappa asked.
"Not yet, Nappa, not yet. I have to plan this carefully because we will only get one chance to give him what he richly deserves. One day, we will topple him and Zarbon and Dodoria and the rest of most of the Top Elite. Until then, we must continue to grow stronger. But right now, we can't afford to do anything foolish."
"So any ideas so far, Prince?" Raditz asked.
"Well, I am-shut up now, boys, Dr. Patina is coming; we can't allow her to repeat what we say to Frieza. Quiet now!" Vegeta ordered, as Dr. Patina entered the room, carrying a tray of pills in little plastic cups.
"Hello gentlemen," she told them pleasantly. "I trust that you are taking this time to rest-or are you still plotting my death?" The no-nonsense doctor had a wry sense of humor when she chose to use it. She gave each of the men a cup of pills, which Nappa and Raditz reluctantly took.
Vegeta looked at the pills suspiciously, and he glared at the doctor. "What the hell are these?"
"My, my, such language. Well, the pink pill is a sedative, and the red pill is a painkiller. Either way, you three boys are going to sleep. Goodnight!" she said brightly, as she started to leave.
"Wait, woman!" Vegeta called after her. "How is my sister?" He grudgingly took the pills after he had asked her.
"My name is Dr. Patina, not woman," Dr. Patina told him curtly. "And as for your sister, she is well, and just as vocal and feisty as you and your friends. Like you, she wants to get back and fight, but she's not going anywhere either."
"We are Saiyans, WOMAN," Vegeta told her sharply. "And Saiyans are warriors, not sluggards; and we want out of here."
"That will be enough, young man. Go to sleep," Dr. Patina ordered briskly, and Vegeta scowled darkly at her. He hated it when anyone referred to him as "young man".
Eclipse tottered to the entranceway of the room. "Dr. Patina, may I please see Nappa for a few moments?" she asked softly.
Dr. Patina said, "Just for a few minutes, Lady Eclipse, and then you should get back to bed yourself. I didn't release you entirely yet; I just allowed you to walk about for a bit. If you feel tired or whatever, get back to bed. Maybe you can talk some sense into these three." And with that, the Gemstarian doctor left, as Eclipse pulled up a folding chair to Nappa's bed. She leaned over and kissed him gently on his lips.
"Ah…" Nappa sighed contentedly. "Now that is a real cure!"
Eclipse smiled, as she took Nappa's large, muscular hand into her small, slender one. The big Saiyan pulled Eclipse's tiny hand to his lips and kissed it. "So, gorgeous, I was starting to worry I'd never see you again," Nappa told her.
"Dr. Patina told me that you almost died; I was worried myself. But then there isn't much that can kill a Saiyan, is there?" Eclipse said happily, as she noticed Nappa scooting away from her to the other side of the bed. He patted the side next to him invitingly, indicating that he wanted Eclipse to lie down besides him, and Eclipse did so. She lay on the bed next to her hunky Saiyan warrior and snuggled close. Nappa wrapped his huge arms around her waist, leaned over and whispered something in Eclipse's ear. Eclipse blushed slightly, a violet tinge touching her cheeks (Gemstarians always blushed a light violet color, even those of mixed breed).
"You sure you don't mind being exclusive?" Nappa asked her gruffly. "Because I won't be sharing you with any other man after this anymore; I'll blast any male who even thinks of touching you."
"I don't mind having you as my one and only," Eclipse responded softly in a giggle. "I'll be breaking a lot of hearts when we get back, but they'll live!"
Nappa laughed, and then suddenly he leaned over and sank his teeth into the base of Eclipse's peach-blue neck. The Ginyu Girl Squad Leader cried out in pain, but the pain slowly lessened, as Nappa lapped at her wound, sending pleasant shivers down her spine. Eclipse curled into her new mate, as Nappa pulled her closer to him.
Vegeta tried to pay as little attention as possible to this tender scene, but he couldn't help it. He just hoped that Nappa knew what he was doing. Nappa had officially made Eclipse his mate, and now they were bonded for life. The young prince shook his head at this; didn't Raditz and Nappa and Journa know how dangerous it was for them to have a permanent mate right now? Nappa and Raditz apparently didn't realize that a woman, a permanent mate, could be tortured or abused by Frieza should either man displease the cruel warlord. Journa and Raditz didn't realize just how much danger they were putting themselves in, and obviously Nappa and Eclipse didn't either. Frieza could use a permanent mate against the three subordinate Saiyans, should they ever refuse an order or get out of line. Having a regular mate made one vulnerable, and Vegeta was glad at this time that he did not have one. It was too risky to have one, and an everyday bedmate was too much trouble to have right now, as she would interfere with the time for Vegeta's training and fighting.
He just hoped that Raditz, Nappa, and Journa remembered that all of the Saiyans were still under Frieza's no-procreation order. Vegeta was just thankful that Frieza didn't put them under a no-copulation order as well, or he and the other two Saiyan men would have gone crazy.
"He's gone," Gohan told Jaca, Herkon, and Kiran, who had been fighting with him. "There's nothing more that we can do." Prince Gohan Chloe was kneeling on the ground, sadly holding the head of a dead Astorian warrior in his arms. This Astorian had been an unobtrusive, but nevertheless an important personage.
"How's Aunt Gorna going to take this?" Jaca asked worriedly. Jaca Chloe was the daughter of Ralia Chloe, Gorna's sister, who had been killed during the invasion of the Korin. Her father was raising Jaca, but he worked for Intergalacticpol, and he was on one of the search-and-rescue teams that were trying to find Jaca's Uncle Jaypros and Aunt Farla, so Jaca had been staying with Gohan and Hazel.
Thirteen-year-old Jaca had golden-brown hair and emerald eyes the same shade as Dirkan's skin, and she was as tall as Gracina with a sturdy and muscular figure with very few curves. She was an average warrior, one who was good enough to kill weaker enemies, but not someone who had the potential to become as strong as Tayla, Riccan, Rojal, or Dedron. She stood next to Kiran, touching hands with him. Fourteen-year-old Kiran was Bendros' younger brother, and he was average looking with mousy brown hair and dull black eyes. He was short and stout, and while he was pleasant enough to look it, the plain boy had not been blessed with his eldest brother's good looks. He and Jaca were becoming more than friends; they were falling in love with each other.
Kiran's short tail waved gently in the wind, as he stood in a green and silver fighting gi (green and silver were the Clan of Sahara colors). He shook his head mournfully; he noticed Prince Gohan Chloe, Chief of Intergalacticpol, sadly look over the recently dead body of one of their comrades. This man had just died after fighting the Sistrai warrior named Taguar, whom he had broken his tail. Taguar, the only Upper Low-Level to survive the onslaught so far had avenged himself by using a special technique known to him as Fire Marble Shower. Taguar had released a small disk of ki the size of a mini-Frisbee that had hovered above the Astorian victim's head. Before the Astorian warrior could fight back, Taguar had shouted out the name of the attack, and the ki disk rained small, deadly balls of fire down upon the hapless Astorian fighter, forcing his temperature to go up a hundred degrees hotter than what it should be. The helpless fighter died quickly before anyone could save him, and when the attack had been completed, he was nothing more than a corpse covered with black, third-degree burn marks.
The furious children had avenged their comrade by attacking Taguar at once with their swords, and it had been Jaca, the average warrior, who had chopped off Taguar's head with her sword. Taguar's head was now resting in a mud puddle, and the rest of his body had been burned away by Herkon's ki blast. Taguar had been only as one-fifth as strong as Balair, his cousin, and if he had been strong as Balair, he would have still lived. Jaca had killed him all too easily.
Now all of Taguar's team were dead, but then so was their comrade, the first known Astorian casualty in this war on Calmag.
Gohan looked down sadly at the older man lying in his arms. The indigo blood had long dried up, and it stained what was left of his clothes. The Astorian man, a Prince of Chloe, had not been much to look at, for he had been short and scrawny with an ugly face that contained a fat nose with a dark brown receding hairline. His only redeeming feature had been his green eyes, his handsome green eyes that were even greener than Jaca's, the color of sun-kissed grass. It had been those eyes and his once smooth manner that had made his wife fall in love with him, even though he was no longer attractive to her. He had let his wife rule over him, and he had not pleased her too well; while he had been alive, he knew that their grandfather had not thought much about him.
Now he was gone forever, someone that no one had really paid attention to except when it came to certain royal matters. He had been someone whom his wife would grieve sincerely for, but she would quickly move on, for the passion and love had faded away years ago, and they had not slept together in two years.
He had been a man whom his siblings and cousins had regarded as a cowardly warrior, and indeed he had been for most of his life, but he had fought bravely in the end. He would never get a chance to fully redeem himself.
"Poor Gorna," Gohan said wearily. "How am I supposed to explain to her that her husband, Etros, has died? I know that she is a strong woman, but this will still come as a shock."
Gohan, using a ki blast, then blasted a hole in the soft, brown ground deep enough for a grave. Within an hour, he and the others had buried Prince Etros Chloe, the once future Superior Granden of Astoria, who would have ruled with his wife when Princess Gorna Chloe had taken the throne in her grandmother's place.
"It's time to go now, children," he said softly. "We must worry now about those who live."
And with that, they slowly and sadly flew into the air and away from Etros Chloe's grave.
