Two Sides To A Story
Chapter Five
Blood… Oh God, there was blood everywhere! And the-the screams were… deafening…
It was never Hector Romesco's intention to ally himself with the Devil incarnate. For much of his adult life, he simply chose to concentrate on his studies and the pursuit of science. It had never been in his nature to purposely want to harm anyone. If asked whether he was capable of blind vengeance, he would have responded with a laughing negative. It was his unfortunate luck, and his trusting nature, which ultimately led to his premature demise…
Hector was nursing a coffee in the small rest area on the far side of Sector Two when the first alarm sounded off. He had been patiently waiting for his fiancée to finish taking her samples from Specimen V and, at the noise, all of his blood turned to ice. Felicia Brevas, his beloved, had confided to him on more than one occasion that she feared their newest acquisition. If not for the intriguing elements that his blood work revealed, she would have asked for a transfer to Level One. Hector worked there in the cloning sector across from Weapons Advancement where Specimen F ("No need for such formalities. Call me Frieza.") was permitted to associate with the staff. Despite his repulsive appearance, the alien proved to be sociable and charming and Hector eventually warmed to him the more they interacted.
"You're not like the other one," Hector had commented to him three days after Vegeta had been brought back and secured in Isolation.
Frieza had been watching the sparse sea life outside of the observation view port of the young scientist's office. Level One had been his home for the last two years and he displayed no irritation at the limited confines of his prison. He was permitted surprising freedom in the few areas that he was allowed to visit, this office being one of them. "We're a completely different species. Mine being the far more evolved of the two, of course," he remarked condescendingly. "Saiyan's are savage little monkeys."
"'Monkeys'?"
"They possess tails, quite redundant appendages but for one unique quality that allow them to shape-change."
"Into what?"
"Nothing important," Frieza dismissed. He tapped at the thick glass, frightening away a curious jellyfish and his black lips stretched into a humorless grin. "A curious by-product that made them efficient cannon- fodder. Nothing more."
"I get the impression that there was some familiarity between the two of you. Do you know him personally?" Hector asked.
"Only by reputation," Frieza lied smoothly. His reflection's cold grin stretched even further as he elaborated, "This male, Vegeta, I believe his name to be, is only a lowly Saiyan even by his own definitions of the breed. Ignorant but very deadly. He cannot be trusted."
Leaning away from his desk, the human nodded in blind acceptance. "They have him in restraints in Isolation but Felicia told me that sedation is becoming a concern. Apparently, his immune system is unprecedented and counteracts all of their drugs. Commander Bedlam fears that an escape is imminent."
Dropping his leering smile, Frieza assumed an expression of deep concern and finally turned away from the window. "I know of the anatomy of this breed. I can offer a formula that will be more effective in… controlling him, if you would like it."
Hector jumped to his feet and offered the alien his chair in front of the computer. "We'd appreciate anything you can give us that will help, Frieza. Will it really work?"
"Oh, it'll work. Trust me," Frieza purred and began entering complex molecular interactions into the medicinal database. His grin was back, wider than ever.
Emerging from the break room, Hector joined a squad of guards rushing to the Isolation sector. He prayed that it was only a false alarm but deep in his heart he knew that somehow, Felicia was involved.
"Sir, you don't have clearance to come in here," the Lieutenant on duty informed him as the immense doors cycled up to open. The instant the metal barriers parted, he could hear the terrifying shrieks of agony and felt a responsive pain in his own chest. "Let me in! That's my fiancée! I know it! I have to get in there!"
"I'm sorry, sir, but this is a restricted –Hey!" Hector shouldered aside one of the soldiers and cast a frenzied look inside of the chamber. The transparent cube was streaked with dark blood and the scene of utter pandemonium. At least six guards were seated on the Saiyan male as Professor Willis was injecting him with the synthetic tranquilizer that Frieza had concocted. His struggles were weakening but Hector couldn't help but notice that his right arm was coated in dripping gore up to his elbow.
More agonized screams wrenched the scientist's gaze away from the feral alien. His wide eyes turned to where medical staff had crowded around a second individual lying on the floor. A pair of legs were kicking weakly and Hector recognized them at once. "…Felicia? !!FELICIA!!"
The doctors lifted her onto a stretcher and Hector almost passed out on the spot. Felicia's usually immaculate white lab coat was coated in blood from her breasts to her knees. A single rope of grayish intestine protruded from the gaping wound on her midriff and at first, Hector couldn't figure out what that strange growth was. "Felicia!"
"H-Hector?" Felicia looked around blindly and finally saw him. Her face was ghostly pale and streaked with tears. "Hector! It-It hurts! It hurrrrrrrrrts-" She vomited an immense gout of blood that appeared almost solid with its consistency. After that, she succumbed to wrenching convulsions.
Hector never saw her body go into its horrific death-throes on the stretcher, by then he had mercifully passed out.
Her remains were cremated and the memorial service was held in the chapel on the Main level where the entire off-duty staff attended. All of the people employed at Installation 15 were deliberately chosen for their top- secret positions because none of them possessed any close relatives. It was standard practice but none of it eased Hector Romesco's heart that he should be the sole person left behind to mourn her unfair passing. He took a mandatory two-week absence and didn't return in much better spirits than how he'd left, but for one major factor; He wanted vengeance.
Predictably, Frieza was there. He easily assumed the literal role of being the Devil over his left shoulder, whispering dark suggestions into the scientist's half-listening ear.
"Saiyan's are prideful monkeys. You can't hurt them with words or even punishment. Only one thing penetrates their eternal arrogance," Frieza told him with a sly, knowing tone.
"What's that?" Hector asked apathetically. He had a picture of Felicia as the wallpaper on his computer desktop and now stared at her carefree smiling image with tears in his eyes. It had only been three days since he had returned and her death was terribly fresh in his mind. He hadn't slept in days and, quite unknown to him, his psyche was desperately vulnerable to suggestions.
With the insight of a true predator, Frieza homed in on that weakness and began murmuring his intentions without hesitation. He had been locked away in this place and rarely made demands beyond his wish for liberties involving more freedom of movement. Now he had another favor to ask. Humans were so unappealing to his personal tastes but he had always enjoyed the unique sensation of Saiyan flesh against his own. His simple request would benefit the both of them…
…and Hector went right along with it.
Professor Gerald Willis had his nose in a report he was preparing for an upcoming briefing and barely glanced into the monitoring room as he stepped past. He immediately did a double take and backtracked until he was standing outside of the door.
All of the monitors that recorded the activity inside of Isolation, where Specimen V was kept, now only displayed blank grey. "What's going on here?" he barked as he entered the room.
The guard on duty jumped to his feet. "Sir?"
"What's happened to the damned surveillance cameras!?" he thundered.
"They've been placed into a ten minute self-diagnostic, sir."
"I gave no order for this. Who was the authorizing party?" Willis asked curtly as he crossed the room.
"Doctor Romesco, sir. He presented the necessary clearance." The guard handed him the convincing paperwork that even had a passable forgery of Willis' own signature at the bottom, granting the procedure. The scientist looked at this with dawning realization and then turned to the console that monitored Specimen V's vitals.
The readings were off the scale.
"Shit!" he hissed under his breath and slammed his palm down on the emergency button. Immediately, clarions sounded off on all levels. Grabbing the nearby microphone, he said over the speakers; "This is Professor Willis! There's a security breach in Isolation! All Special Cadres and medical personnel assemble there at once!"
Leaving the flustered guard behind, Willis bolted downstairs and joined the rest of the rush to the huge double-doors at Level Two. He wasn't assured to see that the Major and his staff assigned to the day rotation were assembled on this side of the room trying to get back in. Standing among them was Hector Romesco.
Grabbing fistfuls of the younger man's coat, Willis slammed him up against the nearest wall. "You idiot! What have you done?"
"He deserves it! He killed Felicia!" Hector yelled back. His eyes rolled with exhaustion, grief and temporary insanity. "I don't have any regrets!"
"!!WHAT DID YOU DO?!!" Willis roared.
The young doctor only continued his inconsolable babbling and Willis let him go with an expression of disgust. Hector slid strengthlessly down the wall and hugged his knees to his chest as his body was wracked by sobs. Ignoring him, Willis turned on the red-faced Major sliding his code-key uselessly back and forth in the security slot. "What's your excuse for leaving your post?"
Swallowing, the Major admitted, "I don't have one, sir."
"I'm going to have Commander Bedlam feed your body to the sharks," Willis promised him, oblivious of how foreboding the threat would turn out to be. There was no lie in his cold eyes and the officer felt his recent promotion go sailing out of the window with the threat. "What's the problem with the release sequence?" the Professor asked next. He shelved the deliberate security lapse for a later time when more proper and less rushed reparations could be made.
"The sensors are reacting to a breach in containment, sir," the Major informed him.
"Internal or external?" Willis queried, not liking the idea that the next room could be flooded with thousands of tons of frigid seawater.
"I'm not getting any indications of an external rupture-"
"Then open the damned doors, you idiot!"
"Sir, there's something wrong with the interior servos. I may not be able to get them to cycle closed again once they're open."
"!!NOW!!"
Opening his mouth to begin the debate about proper over-ride procedures, the Major determined that he was no longer a sterling advocate of protocol and silently entered his personal sequence. By now, all of the staff had assembled and the soldiers held their weapons at the ready. The doors reluctantly accepted the code and began their laborious cycle to open. Before they had parted more than a crack, the first of the agonized wails penetrated the tension. Like fingernails on a blackboard, the deafening cries spiraled up almost into the ultrasonic. They would pause long enough for one quick intake of breath and then start again louder than ever.
Willis charged in even before the Special forces soldiers were able to restrain him. The scene of chaos was far and beyond his worst expectations. The steel walls of Isolation were charred and pitted and even the careful welds holding the panels together were buckled in several areas. It almost appeared as if the chamber had been exposed to atrocious heat for a short duration. All features had been scrubbed clean from their surface, including the cameras positioned at each corner and trained in the center of the room. There, even the supposedly shatterproof cube was lying in pieces; reduced to dime-sized fragments like windshield glass on a highway. Lying amid the clutter was a pale white figure huddled into a tight, shuddering ball. Willis recognized him with complete bewilderment. "Specimen F?"
"Ohhhhh, youlittlemonkey! Howcouldyoudothisto MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" Frieza was screaming over and over.
There was the mutter of a low sound, almost similar to a chuckle, and Willis turned to the far corner. Beside him, the soldiers released the safeties on their automatic weapons and trained them on their target.
Huddled down into a defensive crouch, Vegeta distrustfully eyed the scientist as the man moved in for a closer look. The Saiyan appeared none the worse for wear for whatever the explosion that had razed the chamber. Only his face appeared marred, with a blistering burn on his left cheek and his lower jaw smeared with a dark purple liquid that appeared to be blood. With a snorting cough, he spat out a chunk of meat at the shocked scientist's feet.
It took almost a minute for Willis to recognize the four-inch length of flesh he was looking at. He glanced at Frieza's howling form and back at the Saiyan and wisely moved away. He was cupping his own groin and trying not to be too obvious about the gesture.
"Puts a whole new spin on the expression, 'Bite me', doesn't it?" Vegeta snarled with deadly seriousness.
"HorridlittlemonkeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" Frieza screeched. He managed to raise his head once before slumping back and gripping his severed, spouting limb with both hands. The lower part of his gown was bright purple and his tail flailed about crazily in his agony, smashing anything it came in contact with.
Willis was on the verge of hyperventilating. Both aliens were free of their bonds and conscious. While he watched, the Saiyan was struggling to remove the padded restraints that still encircled his wrists and ankles. His movements were clumsy and uncoordinated from residual sedation. Somehow, with some Herculean effort, he had managed to actually pull them free from the metal brackets that they had been secured to. The terrified scientist motioned to the medical staff behind him to assist the injured alien.
"Every-everything's going to be alright, Specimen V. C-calm down now," he intoned gravely, stepping aside to permit the guards to do their job.
The instant the soldiers advanced, Willis saw a terrifying change come over the Saiyan male. He had been shaved shortly after he had been brought to Installation 15 and now his close-cropped black bristles assumed an odd blond twinge. His black eyes became twin emeralds of concentrated rage. With a roar of anger, his left hand shot out and released a blast of white-hot energy. At the contact, the soldiers did not so much burn as explode from the impact. The contrail of deadly ki traveled the length of the room and detonated against the wall, causing the steel to twist with a rebelling squeal of tortured metal.
"I told you- My name is Vegeta! PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS!" he bellowed and threw another volley at the resisting barrier.
A different sound joined the general alarms. A small hole formed in the center of the blast crater etched into the wall and a trickle of water seeped from it. Almost immediately, the puncture became a widening crack and seawater began to flood into the chamber at an alarming rate. "External rupture in Sector Two, Isolation," a computer voice informed them. "Containment of Isolation now being implemented."
"Clear this room," Willis ordered. "Everybody out or we'll be trapped in here!"
No member of the staff was going to risk their own lives for a pair of aliens, intriguing though they were. Dropping their gear they sprinted for the exit, joining their comrades in the corridor as the first rivers of bloody water dribbled out after them. Anxious eyes watched the doors, waiting for the cycle that would effectively close them and save the rest of the Installation from a devastating flood.
The doors didn't budge.
"Containment of Isolation unsuccessful," the computer said pleasantly, as if they were all blind to the fact.
Trying to avoid giving an 'I told you so' look, the Major tried unsuccessfully to enter various over-rides and get the barriers to close. The water was rushing out of the room in a greater flow as the fissure widened. Willis felt a foreboding pop in his ears as the pressure in the corridor began to compress. He went to a glass covered box mounted on the wall and shattered it with his elbow before pressing the button.
"One minute to complete evacuation of Level Two," the computer voice suddenly boomed over the speakers. "Fifty-five seconds to complete evacuation of Level Two… fifty seconds to-"
"Everyone upstairs now!" Willis commanded. He passed the cringing form of Hector Romesco and reluctantly hauled the weeping scientist to his feet. He half-pulled, half-carried the man to safety even though he didn't feel the bastard deserved it. When Commander Bedlam got through with him, Romesco was going to wish he had been left behind.
The water was up to their ankles when Willis looked back at the smoking chamber of Isolation one last time. The reason for his entire life's work was being abandoned to its fate and he couldn't help but feel a pang of regret for the loss.
It didn't mean that he had to die for it, though. Without a second thought, he pounded up the stairs to the safety of Level One.
Vegeta had greyed out with the second discharge. It wasn't until he felt the shock of ice water against his face, did he realize that he was now alone in the rapidly flooding room. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he ignored the floating pieces of soldiers he had killed and eyed the flooding crevasse with satisfaction. Beyond that twisted metal was freedom. It was all he could ever have hoped for.
A gibbering, strangled curse filled his ears, barely audible above the deafening alarms and the roaring of water. He noticed Frieza's shuddering form and forced himself to his feet, managing to succeed on the second attempt. The numbing water was already to his knees and the metal was groaning from the diverse pressures. There wasn't much time before the chamber imploded but a morbid curiosity plagued him into investigating.
Frieza was sitting up and the chill of the water must have helped him gain his senses. At least he had stopped screaming. "Vah-ghe-tah," he rasped hatefully. "You-UGH! You d-dare do this? You- I… I'll kill you!"
His own face an impassive pale mask, Vegeta strayed too close and that repulsive pink tail wrapped around his ankle with crushing force. He didn't even notice, staring down into the face that had haunted his dreams for more years than he ever wanted to count. Here was a celestial boogey- man groveling at his feet; a planet slayer beyond reckoning. Vegeta's own personal demon in the flesh. He had felt a part of himself wither and die at the sight of his greatest terror remade in all of its hideous glory. The sensation was a holdover of the child who had been rendered helpless and forced to submit to the alien's perversions even as his indomitable pride contorted in agony. No more. At the first invading touch, his will had resurfaced and with that, followed the superhuman strength. The transformation to Super Saiyan had never been so fast or so primal. Vegeta had literally pounced on the first thing to catch his eye and, to Frieza's chagrin, his straining erection had been the sole target for the Saiyan's wrath.
Even now, at the creature's mere touch, Vegeta could feel that power suffusing his pores in reaction. The Super Saiyan transformation had always been motivated by extreme emotions and what the Saiyan felt for his former tormentor eclipsed everything in comparison. "I've learned something from you that I never would have expected, Frieza," Vegeta confessed as he looked into the other alien's wild, enraged visage.
"Treacherous, despicable little monkey," the ghastly alien sputtered. "What could YOU possibly learn?"
"You taste like chicken," Vegeta sneered and spit on him in contempt.
With a hard yank, the Saiyan pulled his leg free and stepped back as he powered up. He saw Frieza's eyes widen almost comically at the sight of the transformation (which would have been a whole lot more impressive if he still had his damned hair!) but didn't linger to provide an explanation. The walls around them were bowing noticeably and the seawater had reached his waist. It was now or never.
"I'm condemning you to Hell," Vegeta growled, his eyes never leaving Frieza's as he gathered his ki. The water pulled away from him in a clear circle as that golden aura protectively cocooned his slight form. The Saiyan finally looked away to the wall and the spouting fissure before directing his cold gaze to the ceiling.
Frieza wasn't going to Hell alone.
Commander Bedlam was trying to calm his men on the Main level when the entire Installation buckled with what felt like an explosion. Scarcely before the computer could inform them that Level One had suffered a breach in containment, Vegeta plowed through the floor barely ten feet away from the shocked officer. Pausing in his retreat, Vegeta and the infuriated officer exchanged one chilling glare. The human's gaze contained only hatred and loathing, a desire for redemption for the Saiyan's past atrocities when he had first visited this world. For Vegeta, his gaze reflected his indignation over what he had endured in the present. There was a union of kindred spirits and similar wills in that brief glance but it was short-lived. Without a word, the Saiyan plowed through the ceiling of the Main level in pursuit of his freedom.
One room away, Hector Romesco rose from the couch where Professor Willis had unceremoniously dumped him and now walked calmly to the window. He ignored the terrified screaming and the alarms and hardly felt the cold water start rushing around his legs. An odd peacefulness had suffused his being in spite of the anarchy beyond the room. He was actually smiling when the first crack appeared on the foot-thick glass before him. As he watched, the glass transformed into a spider web of minute, hairline breaks.
"Felicia, my love… I'll be seeing you soon," he whispered and betrayed one shaky, grieving sob of relief.
The window exploded a heartbeat later.
It didn't take long for all three levels of the underwater facility to flood. Once the mass of water overpowered the pressure maintained in the structure, it crumpled in on itself like one immense beer can. An explosion of air, debris and bodies surged from various ruptures. Some items settled reluctantly to the bottom while others danced briefly in the black currents before being buoyed to the surface far above. Small shrimp and scavengers attacked the bodies and scraps of flesh they found, attracting larger fish to the unique buffet. Eventually, the sharks homed in on the party and by the time they were through, very little were left of the soldiers and staff of Installation 15.
Exploding through the ocean's surface in a huge geyser of water, Vegeta burst into the blue sky with a howl of triumph. He spread his arms wide to the sunshine and released a rare bark of genuine laughter. "I made it! I'm free! I'm-"
-and that's when his ki extinguished itself.
There was no warning to the act. No telltale weakening of his aura. No internal precursor that should have alerted him that he had exhausted his reserves. One second he was blasting away from the water in a powerful vertical arc, the next his power simply turned off as if someone had flicked a switch. He was better than thirty feet in the air when this happened and now tumbled helplessly back down to the ocean. Only one startled thought had time to whip through his mind -This just isn't fucking FAIR!- before he slammed into the dark blue water.
The bullet wounds on his back were only partially healed and the impact was excruciating. To make matters worse, the Saiyan's dense muscle mass immediately worked against him and started to pull him under. Floundering about more in blind urgency than logic, Vegeta struggled to keep his head above water but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for very long. Spots of darkness hovered in the corners of his vision and his limbs were getting heavier with each kick and stroke. Inhaling a mouthful of salt water, he started coughing and only succeeded in swallowing more of the bitter liquid. He managed one more weakened kick and sank like a stone.
…trunks… i'm sorry, he thought incoherently, surrendering to the pull of the black depths below, i never got to be a father… bulma… you and i-i…
A gigantic air bubble buffeted him aside and bright scraps of material swept past him. The remains of the Installation had finally reached the surface and the debris was flowing all around him. More out of luck than accuracy, Vegeta managed to snag an object before it could get past him and allowed it to pull him back up. Breaking the surface, the Saiyan inhaled desperate lungfuls of precious air. He gripped the lifejacket he had caught in a hold that was almost a lover's embrace. It was an unknown length of time before he even registered that there was a body included with the offering.
The soldier's mangled face didn't dawn on Vegeta's numbed senses. Under normal circumstances he might have recognized the person as being Tucker, the human he had taken hostage in his aborted escape attempt over a week (weeks? months?) ago. After that close call, Tucker had taken to wearing a lifevest under his uniform whenever he was on duty. He had even slept in it. Unfortunately, it had only succeeded in saving a lifeless corpse.
Lacking the strength to unfasten the garment, Vegeta flipped the body over so that he didn't have to look at that face and held onto the life jacket with two panicked fists. Resting his cheek against the cushioned fabric, he fell into a dark faint allowing the ocean to take him and his odd raft wherever it dictated.
It could have been only an hour or a full day when Vegeta finally roused to something poking his right shoulder. He gave one irritated shrug and tried to fall back asleep but that urgent tapping continued. "G'way, Nappa… " he grumbled, "don't wanna train t'day… 'm tired… "
There was a loud squawk and something sharp dug into one of the wounds on his back. Vegeta released a startled shout, whirling to confront his attacker and lost hold of the jacket. The shock of the water roused the last of sleep from his dazed mind and he floundered back to the surface, coughing and sputtering. A seagull was sitting on the back of his floating corpse, watching as he grabbed onto the orange preserver with its small, black eyes. Vegeta's own blood was smeared at the point of its beak and the Saiyan lunged for it with an outraged curse. All he got was a handful of feathers for his efforts but the bird wisely took the hint and flew away. At first, the Saiyan was amazed how resourceful the earth creatures are to be able to fly so far from land, until it dawned on him:
Perhaps land wasn't so far away.
He tried to draw on his ki again but there was nothing but a vague ache in the back of his brain. It felt like a muscle that had been deadened by an attack and was loath to work again. With a grumbling sigh, he kicked the water and directed himself and his rotting prize in the direction that he had seen the bird fly. He kept his thoughts carefully neutral during this process, concentrating only on the effort and avoiding anything else. He was a pro at such single-minded pursuits and knew that he couldn't afford to be distracted by thoughts of Frieza (who was now probably being slowly digested in some sea creatures belly), his past tortures or even what he was going to do if-when he reached safety. He was only interested in obtaining that latter concern first.
Despite his body's insistence to rest, the Saiyan kept swimming with that customary stubbornness that so categorized his personality. Life had offered him only two choices in his current plight; he could swim or he could die. After viewing a spectacular sunset of firestorm reds and oranges, the Saiyan kept kicking long after darkness enveloped him. He had no direct course to follow and was numb to the pull of the poles that might have helped his sense of direction. For all he knew, he was swimming in aimless circles and eventually ceased his efforts. Buoyed by the rhythmic flow of gentle waves, Vegeta directed his gaze skywards. Had he thought that he had felt loneliness when he had been stargazing on that dinosaur island? He hadn't even grasped the concept compared to how he felt this very moment. There was going to be no miraculous intervention to save his hide this time, he realized. He was going to die here. Whatever his past sins, he had paid them back in spades for all of this suffering. This was no deserving end for the Prince of all Saiyans. Hopefully, judgement would take that into consideration when he surrendered to the next dimension.
"Father, I'm finally coming home," he said in a voice devoid of fear. The life jacket slipped from his aching fingers and the eager depths of the ocean quickly pulled him under before he could react.
He didn't go far. Almost immediately, he embraced coarse sand and the expression on his face would have been comic at any other time. Settling his feet on the bottom, he stood up to his full height in water that reached his chest. Casting an incredulous gaze to the nearby shore, his eyes finally registered the vague outline of rocks and palm trees of an island. Kami knows how long he had been paddling around in this shallow inlet of the beach. It could have been for hours!
Staggering to shore, he started chuckling to himself at the irony. The muted snickers eventually became loud braying laughter. By the time he made it ashore, he was practically screaming with the humor that was interlaced with shock and hysteria. He collapsed in the damp sand even before the last shout echoed over the small island, his body surrendering to its exhaustion. On his face was an expression of contentment and relief before he fell asleep.
The rest of the night passed quietly and without any disruptions to the Saiyan's peaceful slumber. The sun had been in the sky for several hours before he finally began stirring in the welcome warmth. His entire body ached but the heaviness from the drugs appeared to have finally left his system. His mind was alert when he sat up and began considering his surroundings. He looked down at his palm and tried to form a small ki ball and almost instantly, a bright lance of pain pierced his skull. The harder he tried to focus his power, the worse the pain got. Finally, he abandoned the effort before his head exploded, or seemed about to. Something was desperately wrong, he understood that now. What the hell had the humans done to him?
Further down the beach, he saw a flock of birds crowded around something and rose to investigate. Tucker's body had made it ashore and the crabs and birds were enjoying a decent breakfast. Vegeta waved the winged vermin away and considered the corpse for a moment and then looked down at himself. The soldiers uniform was tattered and ripped but it was a far cry from the hospital gown that the Saiyan had been forced to wear. Vegeta was sick of parading around bare-assed and decided to undress the human's stiff body. Tucker was seven inches taller and a good sixty pounds heavier and his clothes hung on the Saiyan's too-lean frame. The pants alone would have puddled around his ankles if he hadn't poked a new hole into the belt and cinched it tight around his waist. He even wore the combat boots, though they were two sizes too big. Once he donned the cap to protect his vulnerable scalp, the picture was complete. Dressed as he was in army fatigues, the entire troop of Z Fighters could have walked right by him and not recognized who he was.
Vegeta wondered how long he was going to be stuck here until his power returned and decided to reconnoiter the area to check its potential resources. He was terribly hungry and if he didn't hunt something down, and soon, he was going to be feasting on Tucker a la king before the day was over. It wasn't a thought that held much appeal for him and got his legs moving.
About a mile down shore he came across tracks that made the blood in his veins turn into shards of ice. There was a large furrow in the sand as if something had dragged itself from the water. Following that were curious three-toed tracks marching up the beach towards an outcrop of volcanic rock. Vegeta was shaking his head in dismay even as he followed the tracks, shaking his head in dread. "It can't be him. That's not possible. It can't be-"
"!!MONKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" Frieza leapt from the safety of the rocks, howling at the top of his lungs. He plowed into the startled Saiyan and the pair rolled head-over-heels in the sand before Vegeta managed to kick the alien away and scramble to his feet, backing quickly away.
Facing him in a wary crouch, Frieza hadn't emerged unscathed from his escape of Installation 15. He had lost his gown sometime after Vegeta had escaped and his nude body plainly displayed the dark bruises and gashes of his ordeals. Factoring in the Saiyan's own little 'trim' job and Frieza looked like he was in a world of hurt. He was suffering terribly but he wasn't dead.
Not yet, Vegeta vowed. He raised his hand palm-up in an instinctive gesture and called out; "Gallic Gun-" He gripped his head and fell to his knees with a wail of agony.
Frieza's cold laughter barely penetrated the haze of pain around his thoughts. There was a tickle above his upper lip, and when he wiped his nose the back of his hand came away streaked in blood. He looked over at the gloating alien with only confusion in his dark eyes. "What…?"
Chuckling, the pallid creature regarded him spitefully. "Do you like it?"
Vegeta only stared at him.
"My gift to you, Vegeta," Frieza grated in his raspy voice. "You think that the human's managed to subdue you with their primitive restraints and their watered-down drugs? You should have suspected something in your first escape attempt when your blast failed to penetrate the glass."
"What did you do to me?!" Vegeta screamed at him.
Gripping his mutilated flesh, Frieza dropped the false humor and regarded him with an expression of chilling hatred. "You've been exposed to a poison of my making, Saiyan. The human's, those trusting fools, thought it some extraterrestrial sedative. Can you believe it? It weakened you, that's all they cared about. But it's also been devouring the portion of your brain that houses your power. You've been exposed to it for almost three weeks now," he released a bitter laugh of amusement. "Longer than I could have ever dared hope."
"I had my power. I was the Legendary Super Saiyan! You saw it!" Vegeta yelled at him.
"Yes, I saw it," Frieza admitted but his face was still twisted in that gloating smirk. "I hadn't realized you'd managed the transformation. It's of no consequence. The adrenaline surge must have allowed the change but it didn't last, did it my little monkey? Where is your Legendary Super Saiyan power now?"
Breathing heavily, Vegeta looked down at his hands in growing fear. He couldn't deny the ache in the back of his skull where he normally felt that responsive click of his ki. There was nothing for him to draw on. How on earth could he face off against Frieza without even the ability to fly? With an expression of utter hopelessness, he faced the cadaverous-looking alien with the first tendrils of fear worming itself into his gut.
Pursing his lips like a man about to blow someone a kiss, Frieza purred, "I hope that my penis grows back soon. It appears we're going to be stranded here together for a very long time, my Prince."
That did it. Power be damned, Vegeta launched himself at the smug creature and landed a series of blinding kicks and strikes. He still had his martial arts and his arcane speed and he attacked Frieza with every style he knew before thought had time to become purpose. One bent knee got past half formed defenses and broke a rib. An elbow whipped up and cracked Frieza's cheekbone. There was a satisfying explosion of expelled air when Vegeta forced both fists directly up into the aliens' vulnerable diaphragm. Throughout the frenzied combat the sallow creature presented little of a challenge. At first, Vegeta suspected the lack of participation was some sort of ruse; something to draw him in and exhaust himself before being attacked. It didn't happen. When the Saiyan pivoted on his heel and struck Frieza squarely in the face and knocked him over, he stayed down.
"Why aren't you fighting?!" Vegeta screamed down at him. He kicked the grotesque alien squarely in the ribs and derived no satisfaction as the object of his rage only stirred weakly in the sand. He deserved this battle. There were scores to settle that only the two of them could rectify. Kakarrot was dead and there was no meddling son who could interfere this time. Frieza had stripped him of his world, his people, his title, his honor and now his very power. All that he had left were the remnants of his pride to sustain him. "You owe me that much, you bastard! Fight me!"
"… I can't…" came the hoarse response.
"I won't tolerate any more of your bullshit! GET UP!!" He grabbed a fistful of Frieza's clammy flesh and was unprepared when that skin sloughed off of the alien's breast bone with a moist sucking sound.
Staring at what he was holding with an expression of surprise and disgust, Vegeta threw it away and wiped his hand on his thigh to rid himself of the feel of that decaying flesh. He forced himself to take a closer look at the alien lying in the sand. Frieza looked as if he had aged centuries since he had visited Vegeta in his cell. What had he said back then? Something important… There's still a way to go before I'm complete. I've been very cooperative with the humans to get what I want.
"You-you have no ki," Vegeta realized.
Sputtering on a mouthful of bile, Frieza spat out, "I have ki, I just cannot use it-"
"-without causing your cells to degrade. How many times have you had to be cloned?"
"You can't count that high, monkey," Frieza rasped with his usual patronizing manner.
Kicking sand in his face, Vegeta stalked a short distance away. "You're not Frieza at all," he finally said in frustration. "You're just a piece of flesh that didn't have the sense to shrivel up in the desert before the humans found you."
"As long as one strand of my DNA exists intact, I'll be resurrected to the Frieza who owned you, beloved chibi. The humans have other labs, other scientists. Tomorrow or a hundred years from now, someone will find my remains and the pattern will start all over again."
"…no," Vegeta was shaking his head. Quite unexpectedly, he was thinking of little Trunks. What would the boy do if faced with the resurrected tyrant at some unseen point in the future? Was he going to turn his back now and surrender his only son to that unknown hell?
Like his father had done to him?
"No," he said in a stronger voice. He stamped back and stood over Frieza's dying form with his hands clenched into fists by his side. "You're not coming back ever again. It ends here and now."
"What could you possibly do about it?" Frieza shot back, defiant to the end.
Cupping his hands in front of him, Vegeta locked his wrists together and splayed the fingers as if he was gripping an imaginary ball. "I have a going away present I think you'd like to see," he said, squeezing his eyes shut. He began to concentrate on searching for whatever miniscule scrap of ki he could salvage amid the damage. The pain settled in almost immediately, galvanizing with its ferocity but he pressed on. His hands started glowing and Frieza's leering grin dropped in shock.
"You-you can't do that! I won't allow it!"
Blood flowed from Vegeta's nose in a flood and soaked the front of his newly acquired clothes. His bloodshot eyes wavered back and forth between black and green before settling on that piercing emerald regard. "No adrenaline surge is responsible for this," he snarled as the glowing ball in his hands increased in size. Tendrils of bluish static snapped at the air as the power-up continued until it reached critical mass. "It's just good old-fashioned hatred, Frieza. I'm giving you a one way ticket to Hell!"
"You can't do this-"
"!!FINAL FLASH!!"
"-to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"
The compact ball of energy exploded from the Saiyan's trembling hands and hit the thrashing alien at point-blank range, incinerating most of him on the spot. Vegeta could have aborted his attack then and there and perhaps saved himself from serious damage but he wasn't taking any chances. Concentrating the blast into Frieza's charred remains, he punched down into the islands bedrock and through to the planet's mantle. Magma flowed up the path he had created and he barely had time to leap to safety when the first of the red hot lava spewed from the fissure, reaching a height of over ten feet before spreading outwards.
There wasn't even a molecule of Frieza left over when the molten rock slowly oozed over the area. Vegeta used up the absolute last tendrils of his ki to enable him to get to safety before this new volcano engulfed him. He made it about a mile up the beach before collapsing face first into the sand.
Struggling to get his breath back, Vegeta gripped his throbbing skull and started screaming from the excruciating pain. Blood continued to pour from his nose and he was unaware that he was shedding crimson tears in his agony. A tiny rivulet of blood trickled from his left ear and ran unnoticed down his cheek. Blackness mercifully closed in and his unconscious body made several weakened convulsions before it went still. The sand around his head darkened in a spreading pool of blood.
The nearby palms rustled briefly with a sound that was almost a mourning sigh. A gentle gust of wind swept over the unresponsive form of the lone Saiyan with a gesture resembling a saddened caress. The souls of several hundred thousand murdered Saiyans had been vindicated by the battle and now were free to seek out the peace that had eluded them for so long a time. It was the greatest gift that the Prince of their once-proud race could have ever bestowed upon them. Vengeance. Redemption. Freedom. Surging skywards in triumph, several hundred thousand voices called out their sincere gratitude to the source of their affection.
Long live the Prince.
----------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Six: Baby Trunks' health takes a turn for the worst.
Chapter Five
Blood… Oh God, there was blood everywhere! And the-the screams were… deafening…
It was never Hector Romesco's intention to ally himself with the Devil incarnate. For much of his adult life, he simply chose to concentrate on his studies and the pursuit of science. It had never been in his nature to purposely want to harm anyone. If asked whether he was capable of blind vengeance, he would have responded with a laughing negative. It was his unfortunate luck, and his trusting nature, which ultimately led to his premature demise…
Hector was nursing a coffee in the small rest area on the far side of Sector Two when the first alarm sounded off. He had been patiently waiting for his fiancée to finish taking her samples from Specimen V and, at the noise, all of his blood turned to ice. Felicia Brevas, his beloved, had confided to him on more than one occasion that she feared their newest acquisition. If not for the intriguing elements that his blood work revealed, she would have asked for a transfer to Level One. Hector worked there in the cloning sector across from Weapons Advancement where Specimen F ("No need for such formalities. Call me Frieza.") was permitted to associate with the staff. Despite his repulsive appearance, the alien proved to be sociable and charming and Hector eventually warmed to him the more they interacted.
"You're not like the other one," Hector had commented to him three days after Vegeta had been brought back and secured in Isolation.
Frieza had been watching the sparse sea life outside of the observation view port of the young scientist's office. Level One had been his home for the last two years and he displayed no irritation at the limited confines of his prison. He was permitted surprising freedom in the few areas that he was allowed to visit, this office being one of them. "We're a completely different species. Mine being the far more evolved of the two, of course," he remarked condescendingly. "Saiyan's are savage little monkeys."
"'Monkeys'?"
"They possess tails, quite redundant appendages but for one unique quality that allow them to shape-change."
"Into what?"
"Nothing important," Frieza dismissed. He tapped at the thick glass, frightening away a curious jellyfish and his black lips stretched into a humorless grin. "A curious by-product that made them efficient cannon- fodder. Nothing more."
"I get the impression that there was some familiarity between the two of you. Do you know him personally?" Hector asked.
"Only by reputation," Frieza lied smoothly. His reflection's cold grin stretched even further as he elaborated, "This male, Vegeta, I believe his name to be, is only a lowly Saiyan even by his own definitions of the breed. Ignorant but very deadly. He cannot be trusted."
Leaning away from his desk, the human nodded in blind acceptance. "They have him in restraints in Isolation but Felicia told me that sedation is becoming a concern. Apparently, his immune system is unprecedented and counteracts all of their drugs. Commander Bedlam fears that an escape is imminent."
Dropping his leering smile, Frieza assumed an expression of deep concern and finally turned away from the window. "I know of the anatomy of this breed. I can offer a formula that will be more effective in… controlling him, if you would like it."
Hector jumped to his feet and offered the alien his chair in front of the computer. "We'd appreciate anything you can give us that will help, Frieza. Will it really work?"
"Oh, it'll work. Trust me," Frieza purred and began entering complex molecular interactions into the medicinal database. His grin was back, wider than ever.
Emerging from the break room, Hector joined a squad of guards rushing to the Isolation sector. He prayed that it was only a false alarm but deep in his heart he knew that somehow, Felicia was involved.
"Sir, you don't have clearance to come in here," the Lieutenant on duty informed him as the immense doors cycled up to open. The instant the metal barriers parted, he could hear the terrifying shrieks of agony and felt a responsive pain in his own chest. "Let me in! That's my fiancée! I know it! I have to get in there!"
"I'm sorry, sir, but this is a restricted –Hey!" Hector shouldered aside one of the soldiers and cast a frenzied look inside of the chamber. The transparent cube was streaked with dark blood and the scene of utter pandemonium. At least six guards were seated on the Saiyan male as Professor Willis was injecting him with the synthetic tranquilizer that Frieza had concocted. His struggles were weakening but Hector couldn't help but notice that his right arm was coated in dripping gore up to his elbow.
More agonized screams wrenched the scientist's gaze away from the feral alien. His wide eyes turned to where medical staff had crowded around a second individual lying on the floor. A pair of legs were kicking weakly and Hector recognized them at once. "…Felicia? !!FELICIA!!"
The doctors lifted her onto a stretcher and Hector almost passed out on the spot. Felicia's usually immaculate white lab coat was coated in blood from her breasts to her knees. A single rope of grayish intestine protruded from the gaping wound on her midriff and at first, Hector couldn't figure out what that strange growth was. "Felicia!"
"H-Hector?" Felicia looked around blindly and finally saw him. Her face was ghostly pale and streaked with tears. "Hector! It-It hurts! It hurrrrrrrrrts-" She vomited an immense gout of blood that appeared almost solid with its consistency. After that, she succumbed to wrenching convulsions.
Hector never saw her body go into its horrific death-throes on the stretcher, by then he had mercifully passed out.
Her remains were cremated and the memorial service was held in the chapel on the Main level where the entire off-duty staff attended. All of the people employed at Installation 15 were deliberately chosen for their top- secret positions because none of them possessed any close relatives. It was standard practice but none of it eased Hector Romesco's heart that he should be the sole person left behind to mourn her unfair passing. He took a mandatory two-week absence and didn't return in much better spirits than how he'd left, but for one major factor; He wanted vengeance.
Predictably, Frieza was there. He easily assumed the literal role of being the Devil over his left shoulder, whispering dark suggestions into the scientist's half-listening ear.
"Saiyan's are prideful monkeys. You can't hurt them with words or even punishment. Only one thing penetrates their eternal arrogance," Frieza told him with a sly, knowing tone.
"What's that?" Hector asked apathetically. He had a picture of Felicia as the wallpaper on his computer desktop and now stared at her carefree smiling image with tears in his eyes. It had only been three days since he had returned and her death was terribly fresh in his mind. He hadn't slept in days and, quite unknown to him, his psyche was desperately vulnerable to suggestions.
With the insight of a true predator, Frieza homed in on that weakness and began murmuring his intentions without hesitation. He had been locked away in this place and rarely made demands beyond his wish for liberties involving more freedom of movement. Now he had another favor to ask. Humans were so unappealing to his personal tastes but he had always enjoyed the unique sensation of Saiyan flesh against his own. His simple request would benefit the both of them…
…and Hector went right along with it.
Professor Gerald Willis had his nose in a report he was preparing for an upcoming briefing and barely glanced into the monitoring room as he stepped past. He immediately did a double take and backtracked until he was standing outside of the door.
All of the monitors that recorded the activity inside of Isolation, where Specimen V was kept, now only displayed blank grey. "What's going on here?" he barked as he entered the room.
The guard on duty jumped to his feet. "Sir?"
"What's happened to the damned surveillance cameras!?" he thundered.
"They've been placed into a ten minute self-diagnostic, sir."
"I gave no order for this. Who was the authorizing party?" Willis asked curtly as he crossed the room.
"Doctor Romesco, sir. He presented the necessary clearance." The guard handed him the convincing paperwork that even had a passable forgery of Willis' own signature at the bottom, granting the procedure. The scientist looked at this with dawning realization and then turned to the console that monitored Specimen V's vitals.
The readings were off the scale.
"Shit!" he hissed under his breath and slammed his palm down on the emergency button. Immediately, clarions sounded off on all levels. Grabbing the nearby microphone, he said over the speakers; "This is Professor Willis! There's a security breach in Isolation! All Special Cadres and medical personnel assemble there at once!"
Leaving the flustered guard behind, Willis bolted downstairs and joined the rest of the rush to the huge double-doors at Level Two. He wasn't assured to see that the Major and his staff assigned to the day rotation were assembled on this side of the room trying to get back in. Standing among them was Hector Romesco.
Grabbing fistfuls of the younger man's coat, Willis slammed him up against the nearest wall. "You idiot! What have you done?"
"He deserves it! He killed Felicia!" Hector yelled back. His eyes rolled with exhaustion, grief and temporary insanity. "I don't have any regrets!"
"!!WHAT DID YOU DO?!!" Willis roared.
The young doctor only continued his inconsolable babbling and Willis let him go with an expression of disgust. Hector slid strengthlessly down the wall and hugged his knees to his chest as his body was wracked by sobs. Ignoring him, Willis turned on the red-faced Major sliding his code-key uselessly back and forth in the security slot. "What's your excuse for leaving your post?"
Swallowing, the Major admitted, "I don't have one, sir."
"I'm going to have Commander Bedlam feed your body to the sharks," Willis promised him, oblivious of how foreboding the threat would turn out to be. There was no lie in his cold eyes and the officer felt his recent promotion go sailing out of the window with the threat. "What's the problem with the release sequence?" the Professor asked next. He shelved the deliberate security lapse for a later time when more proper and less rushed reparations could be made.
"The sensors are reacting to a breach in containment, sir," the Major informed him.
"Internal or external?" Willis queried, not liking the idea that the next room could be flooded with thousands of tons of frigid seawater.
"I'm not getting any indications of an external rupture-"
"Then open the damned doors, you idiot!"
"Sir, there's something wrong with the interior servos. I may not be able to get them to cycle closed again once they're open."
"!!NOW!!"
Opening his mouth to begin the debate about proper over-ride procedures, the Major determined that he was no longer a sterling advocate of protocol and silently entered his personal sequence. By now, all of the staff had assembled and the soldiers held their weapons at the ready. The doors reluctantly accepted the code and began their laborious cycle to open. Before they had parted more than a crack, the first of the agonized wails penetrated the tension. Like fingernails on a blackboard, the deafening cries spiraled up almost into the ultrasonic. They would pause long enough for one quick intake of breath and then start again louder than ever.
Willis charged in even before the Special forces soldiers were able to restrain him. The scene of chaos was far and beyond his worst expectations. The steel walls of Isolation were charred and pitted and even the careful welds holding the panels together were buckled in several areas. It almost appeared as if the chamber had been exposed to atrocious heat for a short duration. All features had been scrubbed clean from their surface, including the cameras positioned at each corner and trained in the center of the room. There, even the supposedly shatterproof cube was lying in pieces; reduced to dime-sized fragments like windshield glass on a highway. Lying amid the clutter was a pale white figure huddled into a tight, shuddering ball. Willis recognized him with complete bewilderment. "Specimen F?"
"Ohhhhh, youlittlemonkey! Howcouldyoudothisto MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" Frieza was screaming over and over.
There was the mutter of a low sound, almost similar to a chuckle, and Willis turned to the far corner. Beside him, the soldiers released the safeties on their automatic weapons and trained them on their target.
Huddled down into a defensive crouch, Vegeta distrustfully eyed the scientist as the man moved in for a closer look. The Saiyan appeared none the worse for wear for whatever the explosion that had razed the chamber. Only his face appeared marred, with a blistering burn on his left cheek and his lower jaw smeared with a dark purple liquid that appeared to be blood. With a snorting cough, he spat out a chunk of meat at the shocked scientist's feet.
It took almost a minute for Willis to recognize the four-inch length of flesh he was looking at. He glanced at Frieza's howling form and back at the Saiyan and wisely moved away. He was cupping his own groin and trying not to be too obvious about the gesture.
"Puts a whole new spin on the expression, 'Bite me', doesn't it?" Vegeta snarled with deadly seriousness.
"HorridlittlemonkeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" Frieza screeched. He managed to raise his head once before slumping back and gripping his severed, spouting limb with both hands. The lower part of his gown was bright purple and his tail flailed about crazily in his agony, smashing anything it came in contact with.
Willis was on the verge of hyperventilating. Both aliens were free of their bonds and conscious. While he watched, the Saiyan was struggling to remove the padded restraints that still encircled his wrists and ankles. His movements were clumsy and uncoordinated from residual sedation. Somehow, with some Herculean effort, he had managed to actually pull them free from the metal brackets that they had been secured to. The terrified scientist motioned to the medical staff behind him to assist the injured alien.
"Every-everything's going to be alright, Specimen V. C-calm down now," he intoned gravely, stepping aside to permit the guards to do their job.
The instant the soldiers advanced, Willis saw a terrifying change come over the Saiyan male. He had been shaved shortly after he had been brought to Installation 15 and now his close-cropped black bristles assumed an odd blond twinge. His black eyes became twin emeralds of concentrated rage. With a roar of anger, his left hand shot out and released a blast of white-hot energy. At the contact, the soldiers did not so much burn as explode from the impact. The contrail of deadly ki traveled the length of the room and detonated against the wall, causing the steel to twist with a rebelling squeal of tortured metal.
"I told you- My name is Vegeta! PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS!" he bellowed and threw another volley at the resisting barrier.
A different sound joined the general alarms. A small hole formed in the center of the blast crater etched into the wall and a trickle of water seeped from it. Almost immediately, the puncture became a widening crack and seawater began to flood into the chamber at an alarming rate. "External rupture in Sector Two, Isolation," a computer voice informed them. "Containment of Isolation now being implemented."
"Clear this room," Willis ordered. "Everybody out or we'll be trapped in here!"
No member of the staff was going to risk their own lives for a pair of aliens, intriguing though they were. Dropping their gear they sprinted for the exit, joining their comrades in the corridor as the first rivers of bloody water dribbled out after them. Anxious eyes watched the doors, waiting for the cycle that would effectively close them and save the rest of the Installation from a devastating flood.
The doors didn't budge.
"Containment of Isolation unsuccessful," the computer said pleasantly, as if they were all blind to the fact.
Trying to avoid giving an 'I told you so' look, the Major tried unsuccessfully to enter various over-rides and get the barriers to close. The water was rushing out of the room in a greater flow as the fissure widened. Willis felt a foreboding pop in his ears as the pressure in the corridor began to compress. He went to a glass covered box mounted on the wall and shattered it with his elbow before pressing the button.
"One minute to complete evacuation of Level Two," the computer voice suddenly boomed over the speakers. "Fifty-five seconds to complete evacuation of Level Two… fifty seconds to-"
"Everyone upstairs now!" Willis commanded. He passed the cringing form of Hector Romesco and reluctantly hauled the weeping scientist to his feet. He half-pulled, half-carried the man to safety even though he didn't feel the bastard deserved it. When Commander Bedlam got through with him, Romesco was going to wish he had been left behind.
The water was up to their ankles when Willis looked back at the smoking chamber of Isolation one last time. The reason for his entire life's work was being abandoned to its fate and he couldn't help but feel a pang of regret for the loss.
It didn't mean that he had to die for it, though. Without a second thought, he pounded up the stairs to the safety of Level One.
Vegeta had greyed out with the second discharge. It wasn't until he felt the shock of ice water against his face, did he realize that he was now alone in the rapidly flooding room. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he ignored the floating pieces of soldiers he had killed and eyed the flooding crevasse with satisfaction. Beyond that twisted metal was freedom. It was all he could ever have hoped for.
A gibbering, strangled curse filled his ears, barely audible above the deafening alarms and the roaring of water. He noticed Frieza's shuddering form and forced himself to his feet, managing to succeed on the second attempt. The numbing water was already to his knees and the metal was groaning from the diverse pressures. There wasn't much time before the chamber imploded but a morbid curiosity plagued him into investigating.
Frieza was sitting up and the chill of the water must have helped him gain his senses. At least he had stopped screaming. "Vah-ghe-tah," he rasped hatefully. "You-UGH! You d-dare do this? You- I… I'll kill you!"
His own face an impassive pale mask, Vegeta strayed too close and that repulsive pink tail wrapped around his ankle with crushing force. He didn't even notice, staring down into the face that had haunted his dreams for more years than he ever wanted to count. Here was a celestial boogey- man groveling at his feet; a planet slayer beyond reckoning. Vegeta's own personal demon in the flesh. He had felt a part of himself wither and die at the sight of his greatest terror remade in all of its hideous glory. The sensation was a holdover of the child who had been rendered helpless and forced to submit to the alien's perversions even as his indomitable pride contorted in agony. No more. At the first invading touch, his will had resurfaced and with that, followed the superhuman strength. The transformation to Super Saiyan had never been so fast or so primal. Vegeta had literally pounced on the first thing to catch his eye and, to Frieza's chagrin, his straining erection had been the sole target for the Saiyan's wrath.
Even now, at the creature's mere touch, Vegeta could feel that power suffusing his pores in reaction. The Super Saiyan transformation had always been motivated by extreme emotions and what the Saiyan felt for his former tormentor eclipsed everything in comparison. "I've learned something from you that I never would have expected, Frieza," Vegeta confessed as he looked into the other alien's wild, enraged visage.
"Treacherous, despicable little monkey," the ghastly alien sputtered. "What could YOU possibly learn?"
"You taste like chicken," Vegeta sneered and spit on him in contempt.
With a hard yank, the Saiyan pulled his leg free and stepped back as he powered up. He saw Frieza's eyes widen almost comically at the sight of the transformation (which would have been a whole lot more impressive if he still had his damned hair!) but didn't linger to provide an explanation. The walls around them were bowing noticeably and the seawater had reached his waist. It was now or never.
"I'm condemning you to Hell," Vegeta growled, his eyes never leaving Frieza's as he gathered his ki. The water pulled away from him in a clear circle as that golden aura protectively cocooned his slight form. The Saiyan finally looked away to the wall and the spouting fissure before directing his cold gaze to the ceiling.
Frieza wasn't going to Hell alone.
Commander Bedlam was trying to calm his men on the Main level when the entire Installation buckled with what felt like an explosion. Scarcely before the computer could inform them that Level One had suffered a breach in containment, Vegeta plowed through the floor barely ten feet away from the shocked officer. Pausing in his retreat, Vegeta and the infuriated officer exchanged one chilling glare. The human's gaze contained only hatred and loathing, a desire for redemption for the Saiyan's past atrocities when he had first visited this world. For Vegeta, his gaze reflected his indignation over what he had endured in the present. There was a union of kindred spirits and similar wills in that brief glance but it was short-lived. Without a word, the Saiyan plowed through the ceiling of the Main level in pursuit of his freedom.
One room away, Hector Romesco rose from the couch where Professor Willis had unceremoniously dumped him and now walked calmly to the window. He ignored the terrified screaming and the alarms and hardly felt the cold water start rushing around his legs. An odd peacefulness had suffused his being in spite of the anarchy beyond the room. He was actually smiling when the first crack appeared on the foot-thick glass before him. As he watched, the glass transformed into a spider web of minute, hairline breaks.
"Felicia, my love… I'll be seeing you soon," he whispered and betrayed one shaky, grieving sob of relief.
The window exploded a heartbeat later.
It didn't take long for all three levels of the underwater facility to flood. Once the mass of water overpowered the pressure maintained in the structure, it crumpled in on itself like one immense beer can. An explosion of air, debris and bodies surged from various ruptures. Some items settled reluctantly to the bottom while others danced briefly in the black currents before being buoyed to the surface far above. Small shrimp and scavengers attacked the bodies and scraps of flesh they found, attracting larger fish to the unique buffet. Eventually, the sharks homed in on the party and by the time they were through, very little were left of the soldiers and staff of Installation 15.
Exploding through the ocean's surface in a huge geyser of water, Vegeta burst into the blue sky with a howl of triumph. He spread his arms wide to the sunshine and released a rare bark of genuine laughter. "I made it! I'm free! I'm-"
-and that's when his ki extinguished itself.
There was no warning to the act. No telltale weakening of his aura. No internal precursor that should have alerted him that he had exhausted his reserves. One second he was blasting away from the water in a powerful vertical arc, the next his power simply turned off as if someone had flicked a switch. He was better than thirty feet in the air when this happened and now tumbled helplessly back down to the ocean. Only one startled thought had time to whip through his mind -This just isn't fucking FAIR!- before he slammed into the dark blue water.
The bullet wounds on his back were only partially healed and the impact was excruciating. To make matters worse, the Saiyan's dense muscle mass immediately worked against him and started to pull him under. Floundering about more in blind urgency than logic, Vegeta struggled to keep his head above water but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for very long. Spots of darkness hovered in the corners of his vision and his limbs were getting heavier with each kick and stroke. Inhaling a mouthful of salt water, he started coughing and only succeeded in swallowing more of the bitter liquid. He managed one more weakened kick and sank like a stone.
…trunks… i'm sorry, he thought incoherently, surrendering to the pull of the black depths below, i never got to be a father… bulma… you and i-i…
A gigantic air bubble buffeted him aside and bright scraps of material swept past him. The remains of the Installation had finally reached the surface and the debris was flowing all around him. More out of luck than accuracy, Vegeta managed to snag an object before it could get past him and allowed it to pull him back up. Breaking the surface, the Saiyan inhaled desperate lungfuls of precious air. He gripped the lifejacket he had caught in a hold that was almost a lover's embrace. It was an unknown length of time before he even registered that there was a body included with the offering.
The soldier's mangled face didn't dawn on Vegeta's numbed senses. Under normal circumstances he might have recognized the person as being Tucker, the human he had taken hostage in his aborted escape attempt over a week (weeks? months?) ago. After that close call, Tucker had taken to wearing a lifevest under his uniform whenever he was on duty. He had even slept in it. Unfortunately, it had only succeeded in saving a lifeless corpse.
Lacking the strength to unfasten the garment, Vegeta flipped the body over so that he didn't have to look at that face and held onto the life jacket with two panicked fists. Resting his cheek against the cushioned fabric, he fell into a dark faint allowing the ocean to take him and his odd raft wherever it dictated.
It could have been only an hour or a full day when Vegeta finally roused to something poking his right shoulder. He gave one irritated shrug and tried to fall back asleep but that urgent tapping continued. "G'way, Nappa… " he grumbled, "don't wanna train t'day… 'm tired… "
There was a loud squawk and something sharp dug into one of the wounds on his back. Vegeta released a startled shout, whirling to confront his attacker and lost hold of the jacket. The shock of the water roused the last of sleep from his dazed mind and he floundered back to the surface, coughing and sputtering. A seagull was sitting on the back of his floating corpse, watching as he grabbed onto the orange preserver with its small, black eyes. Vegeta's own blood was smeared at the point of its beak and the Saiyan lunged for it with an outraged curse. All he got was a handful of feathers for his efforts but the bird wisely took the hint and flew away. At first, the Saiyan was amazed how resourceful the earth creatures are to be able to fly so far from land, until it dawned on him:
Perhaps land wasn't so far away.
He tried to draw on his ki again but there was nothing but a vague ache in the back of his brain. It felt like a muscle that had been deadened by an attack and was loath to work again. With a grumbling sigh, he kicked the water and directed himself and his rotting prize in the direction that he had seen the bird fly. He kept his thoughts carefully neutral during this process, concentrating only on the effort and avoiding anything else. He was a pro at such single-minded pursuits and knew that he couldn't afford to be distracted by thoughts of Frieza (who was now probably being slowly digested in some sea creatures belly), his past tortures or even what he was going to do if-when he reached safety. He was only interested in obtaining that latter concern first.
Despite his body's insistence to rest, the Saiyan kept swimming with that customary stubbornness that so categorized his personality. Life had offered him only two choices in his current plight; he could swim or he could die. After viewing a spectacular sunset of firestorm reds and oranges, the Saiyan kept kicking long after darkness enveloped him. He had no direct course to follow and was numb to the pull of the poles that might have helped his sense of direction. For all he knew, he was swimming in aimless circles and eventually ceased his efforts. Buoyed by the rhythmic flow of gentle waves, Vegeta directed his gaze skywards. Had he thought that he had felt loneliness when he had been stargazing on that dinosaur island? He hadn't even grasped the concept compared to how he felt this very moment. There was going to be no miraculous intervention to save his hide this time, he realized. He was going to die here. Whatever his past sins, he had paid them back in spades for all of this suffering. This was no deserving end for the Prince of all Saiyans. Hopefully, judgement would take that into consideration when he surrendered to the next dimension.
"Father, I'm finally coming home," he said in a voice devoid of fear. The life jacket slipped from his aching fingers and the eager depths of the ocean quickly pulled him under before he could react.
He didn't go far. Almost immediately, he embraced coarse sand and the expression on his face would have been comic at any other time. Settling his feet on the bottom, he stood up to his full height in water that reached his chest. Casting an incredulous gaze to the nearby shore, his eyes finally registered the vague outline of rocks and palm trees of an island. Kami knows how long he had been paddling around in this shallow inlet of the beach. It could have been for hours!
Staggering to shore, he started chuckling to himself at the irony. The muted snickers eventually became loud braying laughter. By the time he made it ashore, he was practically screaming with the humor that was interlaced with shock and hysteria. He collapsed in the damp sand even before the last shout echoed over the small island, his body surrendering to its exhaustion. On his face was an expression of contentment and relief before he fell asleep.
The rest of the night passed quietly and without any disruptions to the Saiyan's peaceful slumber. The sun had been in the sky for several hours before he finally began stirring in the welcome warmth. His entire body ached but the heaviness from the drugs appeared to have finally left his system. His mind was alert when he sat up and began considering his surroundings. He looked down at his palm and tried to form a small ki ball and almost instantly, a bright lance of pain pierced his skull. The harder he tried to focus his power, the worse the pain got. Finally, he abandoned the effort before his head exploded, or seemed about to. Something was desperately wrong, he understood that now. What the hell had the humans done to him?
Further down the beach, he saw a flock of birds crowded around something and rose to investigate. Tucker's body had made it ashore and the crabs and birds were enjoying a decent breakfast. Vegeta waved the winged vermin away and considered the corpse for a moment and then looked down at himself. The soldiers uniform was tattered and ripped but it was a far cry from the hospital gown that the Saiyan had been forced to wear. Vegeta was sick of parading around bare-assed and decided to undress the human's stiff body. Tucker was seven inches taller and a good sixty pounds heavier and his clothes hung on the Saiyan's too-lean frame. The pants alone would have puddled around his ankles if he hadn't poked a new hole into the belt and cinched it tight around his waist. He even wore the combat boots, though they were two sizes too big. Once he donned the cap to protect his vulnerable scalp, the picture was complete. Dressed as he was in army fatigues, the entire troop of Z Fighters could have walked right by him and not recognized who he was.
Vegeta wondered how long he was going to be stuck here until his power returned and decided to reconnoiter the area to check its potential resources. He was terribly hungry and if he didn't hunt something down, and soon, he was going to be feasting on Tucker a la king before the day was over. It wasn't a thought that held much appeal for him and got his legs moving.
About a mile down shore he came across tracks that made the blood in his veins turn into shards of ice. There was a large furrow in the sand as if something had dragged itself from the water. Following that were curious three-toed tracks marching up the beach towards an outcrop of volcanic rock. Vegeta was shaking his head in dismay even as he followed the tracks, shaking his head in dread. "It can't be him. That's not possible. It can't be-"
"!!MONKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" Frieza leapt from the safety of the rocks, howling at the top of his lungs. He plowed into the startled Saiyan and the pair rolled head-over-heels in the sand before Vegeta managed to kick the alien away and scramble to his feet, backing quickly away.
Facing him in a wary crouch, Frieza hadn't emerged unscathed from his escape of Installation 15. He had lost his gown sometime after Vegeta had escaped and his nude body plainly displayed the dark bruises and gashes of his ordeals. Factoring in the Saiyan's own little 'trim' job and Frieza looked like he was in a world of hurt. He was suffering terribly but he wasn't dead.
Not yet, Vegeta vowed. He raised his hand palm-up in an instinctive gesture and called out; "Gallic Gun-" He gripped his head and fell to his knees with a wail of agony.
Frieza's cold laughter barely penetrated the haze of pain around his thoughts. There was a tickle above his upper lip, and when he wiped his nose the back of his hand came away streaked in blood. He looked over at the gloating alien with only confusion in his dark eyes. "What…?"
Chuckling, the pallid creature regarded him spitefully. "Do you like it?"
Vegeta only stared at him.
"My gift to you, Vegeta," Frieza grated in his raspy voice. "You think that the human's managed to subdue you with their primitive restraints and their watered-down drugs? You should have suspected something in your first escape attempt when your blast failed to penetrate the glass."
"What did you do to me?!" Vegeta screamed at him.
Gripping his mutilated flesh, Frieza dropped the false humor and regarded him with an expression of chilling hatred. "You've been exposed to a poison of my making, Saiyan. The human's, those trusting fools, thought it some extraterrestrial sedative. Can you believe it? It weakened you, that's all they cared about. But it's also been devouring the portion of your brain that houses your power. You've been exposed to it for almost three weeks now," he released a bitter laugh of amusement. "Longer than I could have ever dared hope."
"I had my power. I was the Legendary Super Saiyan! You saw it!" Vegeta yelled at him.
"Yes, I saw it," Frieza admitted but his face was still twisted in that gloating smirk. "I hadn't realized you'd managed the transformation. It's of no consequence. The adrenaline surge must have allowed the change but it didn't last, did it my little monkey? Where is your Legendary Super Saiyan power now?"
Breathing heavily, Vegeta looked down at his hands in growing fear. He couldn't deny the ache in the back of his skull where he normally felt that responsive click of his ki. There was nothing for him to draw on. How on earth could he face off against Frieza without even the ability to fly? With an expression of utter hopelessness, he faced the cadaverous-looking alien with the first tendrils of fear worming itself into his gut.
Pursing his lips like a man about to blow someone a kiss, Frieza purred, "I hope that my penis grows back soon. It appears we're going to be stranded here together for a very long time, my Prince."
That did it. Power be damned, Vegeta launched himself at the smug creature and landed a series of blinding kicks and strikes. He still had his martial arts and his arcane speed and he attacked Frieza with every style he knew before thought had time to become purpose. One bent knee got past half formed defenses and broke a rib. An elbow whipped up and cracked Frieza's cheekbone. There was a satisfying explosion of expelled air when Vegeta forced both fists directly up into the aliens' vulnerable diaphragm. Throughout the frenzied combat the sallow creature presented little of a challenge. At first, Vegeta suspected the lack of participation was some sort of ruse; something to draw him in and exhaust himself before being attacked. It didn't happen. When the Saiyan pivoted on his heel and struck Frieza squarely in the face and knocked him over, he stayed down.
"Why aren't you fighting?!" Vegeta screamed down at him. He kicked the grotesque alien squarely in the ribs and derived no satisfaction as the object of his rage only stirred weakly in the sand. He deserved this battle. There were scores to settle that only the two of them could rectify. Kakarrot was dead and there was no meddling son who could interfere this time. Frieza had stripped him of his world, his people, his title, his honor and now his very power. All that he had left were the remnants of his pride to sustain him. "You owe me that much, you bastard! Fight me!"
"… I can't…" came the hoarse response.
"I won't tolerate any more of your bullshit! GET UP!!" He grabbed a fistful of Frieza's clammy flesh and was unprepared when that skin sloughed off of the alien's breast bone with a moist sucking sound.
Staring at what he was holding with an expression of surprise and disgust, Vegeta threw it away and wiped his hand on his thigh to rid himself of the feel of that decaying flesh. He forced himself to take a closer look at the alien lying in the sand. Frieza looked as if he had aged centuries since he had visited Vegeta in his cell. What had he said back then? Something important… There's still a way to go before I'm complete. I've been very cooperative with the humans to get what I want.
"You-you have no ki," Vegeta realized.
Sputtering on a mouthful of bile, Frieza spat out, "I have ki, I just cannot use it-"
"-without causing your cells to degrade. How many times have you had to be cloned?"
"You can't count that high, monkey," Frieza rasped with his usual patronizing manner.
Kicking sand in his face, Vegeta stalked a short distance away. "You're not Frieza at all," he finally said in frustration. "You're just a piece of flesh that didn't have the sense to shrivel up in the desert before the humans found you."
"As long as one strand of my DNA exists intact, I'll be resurrected to the Frieza who owned you, beloved chibi. The humans have other labs, other scientists. Tomorrow or a hundred years from now, someone will find my remains and the pattern will start all over again."
"…no," Vegeta was shaking his head. Quite unexpectedly, he was thinking of little Trunks. What would the boy do if faced with the resurrected tyrant at some unseen point in the future? Was he going to turn his back now and surrender his only son to that unknown hell?
Like his father had done to him?
"No," he said in a stronger voice. He stamped back and stood over Frieza's dying form with his hands clenched into fists by his side. "You're not coming back ever again. It ends here and now."
"What could you possibly do about it?" Frieza shot back, defiant to the end.
Cupping his hands in front of him, Vegeta locked his wrists together and splayed the fingers as if he was gripping an imaginary ball. "I have a going away present I think you'd like to see," he said, squeezing his eyes shut. He began to concentrate on searching for whatever miniscule scrap of ki he could salvage amid the damage. The pain settled in almost immediately, galvanizing with its ferocity but he pressed on. His hands started glowing and Frieza's leering grin dropped in shock.
"You-you can't do that! I won't allow it!"
Blood flowed from Vegeta's nose in a flood and soaked the front of his newly acquired clothes. His bloodshot eyes wavered back and forth between black and green before settling on that piercing emerald regard. "No adrenaline surge is responsible for this," he snarled as the glowing ball in his hands increased in size. Tendrils of bluish static snapped at the air as the power-up continued until it reached critical mass. "It's just good old-fashioned hatred, Frieza. I'm giving you a one way ticket to Hell!"
"You can't do this-"
"!!FINAL FLASH!!"
"-to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"
The compact ball of energy exploded from the Saiyan's trembling hands and hit the thrashing alien at point-blank range, incinerating most of him on the spot. Vegeta could have aborted his attack then and there and perhaps saved himself from serious damage but he wasn't taking any chances. Concentrating the blast into Frieza's charred remains, he punched down into the islands bedrock and through to the planet's mantle. Magma flowed up the path he had created and he barely had time to leap to safety when the first of the red hot lava spewed from the fissure, reaching a height of over ten feet before spreading outwards.
There wasn't even a molecule of Frieza left over when the molten rock slowly oozed over the area. Vegeta used up the absolute last tendrils of his ki to enable him to get to safety before this new volcano engulfed him. He made it about a mile up the beach before collapsing face first into the sand.
Struggling to get his breath back, Vegeta gripped his throbbing skull and started screaming from the excruciating pain. Blood continued to pour from his nose and he was unaware that he was shedding crimson tears in his agony. A tiny rivulet of blood trickled from his left ear and ran unnoticed down his cheek. Blackness mercifully closed in and his unconscious body made several weakened convulsions before it went still. The sand around his head darkened in a spreading pool of blood.
The nearby palms rustled briefly with a sound that was almost a mourning sigh. A gentle gust of wind swept over the unresponsive form of the lone Saiyan with a gesture resembling a saddened caress. The souls of several hundred thousand murdered Saiyans had been vindicated by the battle and now were free to seek out the peace that had eluded them for so long a time. It was the greatest gift that the Prince of their once-proud race could have ever bestowed upon them. Vengeance. Redemption. Freedom. Surging skywards in triumph, several hundred thousand voices called out their sincere gratitude to the source of their affection.
Long live the Prince.
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Chapter Six: Baby Trunks' health takes a turn for the worst.