Deception. Ch 2.
By Elbereth in April
"And this is the Saiyans' Quarters," Vegeta said, finishing the tour of Frieza's base he was conducting for Kakkarot's benefit. The Saiyans' Quarters was a long, gray hallway with 15 rooms on each side. "There's exactly 30 rooms because there's always 30 of us."
"But don't I make 31?"
Vegeta didn't answer for a minute. They walked on until they came to one open door. "Lenar..."
"What?"
Vegeta crossed his arms and looked at him. "Anytime a new Saiyan comes along, Frieza kills one of the old batch. Looks like this time it was Lenar. You get his room."
Kakkarot's eyes got huge as Vegeta entered the room, flipping on the light. It was small, gray, and sterile. There was a bed, a couch, a closet, a bathroom, and a picture on the wall of Frieza. "There're all the same," Vegeta said. "If you take down the picture, you'll be made to regret it. Don't try it."
Kakkarot was still shocked and upset. "He just randomly kills one of you every so often? And you all let him?"
Vegeta scowled dangerously. "If we could stop him, we would. You don't understand how powerful he is."
Kakkarot remembered Frieza's hand gripping his jaw. "I guess you're right."
"Of course I am, baka."
Kakkarot frowned.
"Now what's wrong?"
"You just called me a baka."
Vegeta stared at him a moment, then smirked. "What about baka brother?"
A voice from the doorway interrupted them. "You'll have to excuse him, new boy. That's just Vegeta's charming personality showing through. He's always like that."
The other Saiyan was tall---almost 7 feet. And he dripped smug superiority. His tail was twitching lazily. His hair stuck up in long spikes.
"Hello, baka Dom. How are you?"
Dom didn't answer that, just looked around the room. "Looks like poor Lenar is gone. Well, he was the weakest of us."
To his own surprise, Vegeta found himself getting angry. "He was only 13. You're at least three times that. You've had time to practice."
Dom smiled in amusement. "Little Vegeta. I've always been this good."
"Who are you calling little, you..."
Kakkarot stepped in between them, looking Dom over. "You're old and unimpressive."
Vegeta laughed.
"At least I remember my own name," Dom snarled.
Kakkarot casually began to power up. The other two stared at him in wonder. Dom, who was wearing his scouter, watched the numbers climb in stunned disbelief. "He's almost as strong as Nappa!" Dom exclaimed. "I wonder how he managed to beat this brat?"
"You could beat him, though, couldn't you, Dom?" Vegeta taunted him.
"Of course I could! But I just thought of some urgent business I have to attend to!" He spun around and ran away.
Kakkarot sighed and powered down. "Obviously can't back up his words, can he?"
Vegeta shook his head. "Do you remember your fight with Nappa? I am kind of surprised he beat you."
"No."
"Hmm." Vegeta tapped his fingers on his arm. "Spar," he said. "Now."
Kakkarot grinned.
________ __________
So they went to one of the sparring rooms. They faced off for a moment. Vegeta smirked. "All right, Kakkarot. Take your best shot."
"All right, big brother."
The "big brother" distracted him enough that Kakkarot actually landed his first punch.
Vegeta growled and dodged the next punch. He jumped straight up, spun around, and kicked Kakkarot in the face. Kakkarot followed him into the air. They fought for awhile, Vegeta growing increasingly annoyed. Finally Kakkarot stunned him momentarily with a ki blast.
'So my "little brother" is stronger than me.' This did not sit well with Vegeta at all. 'Maybe...maybe he knows some trick that I don't.' He tried to calm himself down so he could ask. It wouldn't do to let Kakkarot know he was angry.
Vegeta took a deep breath and signaled for a pause in the fighting. "You're strong, Kakkarot," he said as if it was a casual observation. "Very strong. How did you get so powerful on such a backward planet?"
"I don't remember."
Vegeta hissed in frustration.
"Wait," Kakkarot said slowly. "Maybe I do remember." He frowned in concentration. "There was a...little white room. And I can hear a girl's voice."
"Saying...?"
"Something about having studied the...scientific principles of martial arts, and coming up with...a device that allowed you to train in 100 times gravity."
"100 times gravity?"
Kakkarot nodded.
"Do you remember anything more?"
Kakkarot shuffled his feet. "Sorry, Vegeta. That seems to be the only memory I have of anything."
Vegeta crossed his arms. "I don't suppose you have this device anymore?" When Kakkarot shook his head, Vegeta stared off into space. "Science. A device. Hmm."
Then he smirked. "Don't say anything of this to anyone, got that, little brother? I have a plan."
Kakkarot smiled, then frowned. "I guess you can't really trust anybody here, can you?"
Vegeta looked at him. How could anyone possibly think that you could? "If you trust anyone, you're a fool, Kakkarot." Then he added hastily, "Except for me, of course."
Kakkarot seemed to accept everything he told him. Vegeta sneered. "Back to sparring."
They powered up again. 'I'll surpass you yet, Kakkarot.'
___________ _____________
Two days later, Vegeta woke Kakkarot up by kicking his bed repeatedly. "Today you purge your first planet, little brother. I requested this particular planet myself. It's full of weaklings. We'll break you in easy." That wasn't the real reason he'd requested this planet, but he'd reveal that later.
Kakkarot looked pretty upset. "But Vegeta, I don't want to kill anybody."
"Do you want Frieza to beat you to a bloody pulp?"
Kakkarot had managed to avoid Frieza over the last two days but could picture the sadistic glee in his eyes. "No. But..."
"He'll break you. He'll make you do it in the end."
"Is that what he did to you?" Kakkarot asked innocently.
Vegeta went very still. "I have never been broken."
Kakkarot knew he'd made a big mistake. He gulped and jumped out of bed. "Of course not! I just..."
"I don't have your weak scruples, Kakkarot. I'm a warrior. I can kill people."
Kakkarot hurridly got dressed, thinking hard. On one hand, the thought of murdering people made him sick. He would rather die. On the other hand, Frieza probably could break him. Especially if he threatened Vegeta. And Frieza undoubtably would.
Vegeta was still staring at him with that hard, blank expression. He didn't want Vegeta to hate him. His brother was all he had. He knew he severely annoyed Vegeta several times a day. He knew everybody on base watched them in fascination: he was new and odd, they were a strange pairing, and no one could quite reconcile the idea of Vegeta showing---not exactly a brotherly concern---but a kind of distant, unfeeling attentiveness that was at least a willingness to tolerate ignorance and offer advice (which he'd never shown to anyone before). And he'd actually told a few people to leave his brother alone.
Kakkarot didn't know what to think about it all either. But he wanted Vegeta to not be ashamed of him. To feel something for him. Because he wan't sure right now if his brother cared or not.
He wasn't sure what this had to do with him deciding it was OK to murder millions of people, but suddenly he realized he was going to do it.
He finished putting on his armor. "Fine. But we get to eat first, right?"
Vegeta blinked, then gave his customary smirk. "It's obvious by now you're not good for anything until you eat. So of course I planned for breakfast."
____________ _____________
They were sitting at a table by themselves. The dining hall was mostly deserted this early in the morning. Vegeta saw Kakkarot stiffen with his fork half-way to his mouth. He turned around. That baka Recoome and his baka pal Burter were coming over.
He snorted and turned back around. "Keep eating."
The two members of the Ginyu Force stood preening in front of their table. "We heard you monkeys are going planet purging today. Your first, eh, Kakkarot?"
He nodded, eyeing them warily.
"I'm surprised at you for picking such a weak planet, Vegeta. What's the matter, going soft now with your baby brother here?"
"The day you don't look stupid posing is the day I go soft, moron." Vegeta scowled at them.
"You little freak! I should crush you right here!" Burter howled.
"I'm afraid that Frieza expects us at a certain time. You wouldn't want to ruin his mission, would you, Bertie?"
Burter picked up Vegeta's container of kwaltan juice and crushed it in his hand. Naturally it splattered all over his hand and arm, and Recoome's feet.
"You are a moron," Recoome said, giving Burter a shove.
Burter shoved back.
"Time to go," Vegeta whispered to Kakkarot. They left the two aliens arguing and headed for their ships.
Frieza met them there. "I expect good work from you, monkey. No more amnesia excuses. You better finish purging this planet."
"Yes, sir," Kakkarot said, trying not to sound sullen.
"The same for you, Vegeta. You know the punishment for failure. Have you enlightened your brother?"
"He'll break every bone in your body," Vegeta told Kakkarot flatly.
Frieza smiled. "Including the tail. I do love playing with you monkeys' tails."
Vegeta didn't dare look at Frieza. He'd be able to see the smoldering hate in his eyes.
"Very well. Off with you then."
The Saiyans climbed into their space pods and blasted off.
____________ ____________
They landed just outside a huge glass, cathedral-like structure on the planet Parmel. "Before the destruction starts, we have a little mission of our own," Vegeta informed Kakkarot. "I told you I had a plan to get one of those gravity devices. Well come on."
They entered the building. It was one huge scientific workshop, full of tall, thin, four-armed, yellow-skinned aliens. "Planet Parmel is well known for its scientific geniuses. You!" He approached the first alien he came across. "We want you to make us a device that is capable of creating up to 500 times normal gravity in a sparring room."
"Certainly. That will take four days. Cash or charge?"
Vegeta held out his hand. It was glowing with ki energy. "Make that four hours and I will spare your miserable lives. If you fail to deliver, I'll destroy your whole planet!"
The alien blanched and all the others stopped working, turning to them in horror. "You can't be serious!"
Vegeta shot a thin ki beam at one of them, who fell dead instantly.
They shrieked in terror.
"All right! We'll do it!" the alien said.
"We'll wait outside." Which they did. Kakkarot suggested they play Rock, Paper, Scissors to pass the time, but after a few rounds, Vegeta grew bored and flew off to destroy the nearest towns. He came back shortly.
"This place is no challenge at all," he complained.
The device was ready in just under 3 hours. Vegeta tried it out at 100 times gravity at once. Everyone was flattened to the floor except himself and Kakkarot. Vegeta smirked. "It works." He turned it off and they left the building. Vegeta destroyed the building and all inside with a particularly spectacular ki blast.
Kakkarot looked at him. "You lied to them."
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Frieza can't know we have this. He'd kill us both. Come on, we have to take care of the rest of the planet."
Kakkarot felt troubled, but pushed it aside. He would keep following Vegeta's lead.
By Elbereth in April
"And this is the Saiyans' Quarters," Vegeta said, finishing the tour of Frieza's base he was conducting for Kakkarot's benefit. The Saiyans' Quarters was a long, gray hallway with 15 rooms on each side. "There's exactly 30 rooms because there's always 30 of us."
"But don't I make 31?"
Vegeta didn't answer for a minute. They walked on until they came to one open door. "Lenar..."
"What?"
Vegeta crossed his arms and looked at him. "Anytime a new Saiyan comes along, Frieza kills one of the old batch. Looks like this time it was Lenar. You get his room."
Kakkarot's eyes got huge as Vegeta entered the room, flipping on the light. It was small, gray, and sterile. There was a bed, a couch, a closet, a bathroom, and a picture on the wall of Frieza. "There're all the same," Vegeta said. "If you take down the picture, you'll be made to regret it. Don't try it."
Kakkarot was still shocked and upset. "He just randomly kills one of you every so often? And you all let him?"
Vegeta scowled dangerously. "If we could stop him, we would. You don't understand how powerful he is."
Kakkarot remembered Frieza's hand gripping his jaw. "I guess you're right."
"Of course I am, baka."
Kakkarot frowned.
"Now what's wrong?"
"You just called me a baka."
Vegeta stared at him a moment, then smirked. "What about baka brother?"
A voice from the doorway interrupted them. "You'll have to excuse him, new boy. That's just Vegeta's charming personality showing through. He's always like that."
The other Saiyan was tall---almost 7 feet. And he dripped smug superiority. His tail was twitching lazily. His hair stuck up in long spikes.
"Hello, baka Dom. How are you?"
Dom didn't answer that, just looked around the room. "Looks like poor Lenar is gone. Well, he was the weakest of us."
To his own surprise, Vegeta found himself getting angry. "He was only 13. You're at least three times that. You've had time to practice."
Dom smiled in amusement. "Little Vegeta. I've always been this good."
"Who are you calling little, you..."
Kakkarot stepped in between them, looking Dom over. "You're old and unimpressive."
Vegeta laughed.
"At least I remember my own name," Dom snarled.
Kakkarot casually began to power up. The other two stared at him in wonder. Dom, who was wearing his scouter, watched the numbers climb in stunned disbelief. "He's almost as strong as Nappa!" Dom exclaimed. "I wonder how he managed to beat this brat?"
"You could beat him, though, couldn't you, Dom?" Vegeta taunted him.
"Of course I could! But I just thought of some urgent business I have to attend to!" He spun around and ran away.
Kakkarot sighed and powered down. "Obviously can't back up his words, can he?"
Vegeta shook his head. "Do you remember your fight with Nappa? I am kind of surprised he beat you."
"No."
"Hmm." Vegeta tapped his fingers on his arm. "Spar," he said. "Now."
Kakkarot grinned.
________ __________
So they went to one of the sparring rooms. They faced off for a moment. Vegeta smirked. "All right, Kakkarot. Take your best shot."
"All right, big brother."
The "big brother" distracted him enough that Kakkarot actually landed his first punch.
Vegeta growled and dodged the next punch. He jumped straight up, spun around, and kicked Kakkarot in the face. Kakkarot followed him into the air. They fought for awhile, Vegeta growing increasingly annoyed. Finally Kakkarot stunned him momentarily with a ki blast.
'So my "little brother" is stronger than me.' This did not sit well with Vegeta at all. 'Maybe...maybe he knows some trick that I don't.' He tried to calm himself down so he could ask. It wouldn't do to let Kakkarot know he was angry.
Vegeta took a deep breath and signaled for a pause in the fighting. "You're strong, Kakkarot," he said as if it was a casual observation. "Very strong. How did you get so powerful on such a backward planet?"
"I don't remember."
Vegeta hissed in frustration.
"Wait," Kakkarot said slowly. "Maybe I do remember." He frowned in concentration. "There was a...little white room. And I can hear a girl's voice."
"Saying...?"
"Something about having studied the...scientific principles of martial arts, and coming up with...a device that allowed you to train in 100 times gravity."
"100 times gravity?"
Kakkarot nodded.
"Do you remember anything more?"
Kakkarot shuffled his feet. "Sorry, Vegeta. That seems to be the only memory I have of anything."
Vegeta crossed his arms. "I don't suppose you have this device anymore?" When Kakkarot shook his head, Vegeta stared off into space. "Science. A device. Hmm."
Then he smirked. "Don't say anything of this to anyone, got that, little brother? I have a plan."
Kakkarot smiled, then frowned. "I guess you can't really trust anybody here, can you?"
Vegeta looked at him. How could anyone possibly think that you could? "If you trust anyone, you're a fool, Kakkarot." Then he added hastily, "Except for me, of course."
Kakkarot seemed to accept everything he told him. Vegeta sneered. "Back to sparring."
They powered up again. 'I'll surpass you yet, Kakkarot.'
___________ _____________
Two days later, Vegeta woke Kakkarot up by kicking his bed repeatedly. "Today you purge your first planet, little brother. I requested this particular planet myself. It's full of weaklings. We'll break you in easy." That wasn't the real reason he'd requested this planet, but he'd reveal that later.
Kakkarot looked pretty upset. "But Vegeta, I don't want to kill anybody."
"Do you want Frieza to beat you to a bloody pulp?"
Kakkarot had managed to avoid Frieza over the last two days but could picture the sadistic glee in his eyes. "No. But..."
"He'll break you. He'll make you do it in the end."
"Is that what he did to you?" Kakkarot asked innocently.
Vegeta went very still. "I have never been broken."
Kakkarot knew he'd made a big mistake. He gulped and jumped out of bed. "Of course not! I just..."
"I don't have your weak scruples, Kakkarot. I'm a warrior. I can kill people."
Kakkarot hurridly got dressed, thinking hard. On one hand, the thought of murdering people made him sick. He would rather die. On the other hand, Frieza probably could break him. Especially if he threatened Vegeta. And Frieza undoubtably would.
Vegeta was still staring at him with that hard, blank expression. He didn't want Vegeta to hate him. His brother was all he had. He knew he severely annoyed Vegeta several times a day. He knew everybody on base watched them in fascination: he was new and odd, they were a strange pairing, and no one could quite reconcile the idea of Vegeta showing---not exactly a brotherly concern---but a kind of distant, unfeeling attentiveness that was at least a willingness to tolerate ignorance and offer advice (which he'd never shown to anyone before). And he'd actually told a few people to leave his brother alone.
Kakkarot didn't know what to think about it all either. But he wanted Vegeta to not be ashamed of him. To feel something for him. Because he wan't sure right now if his brother cared or not.
He wasn't sure what this had to do with him deciding it was OK to murder millions of people, but suddenly he realized he was going to do it.
He finished putting on his armor. "Fine. But we get to eat first, right?"
Vegeta blinked, then gave his customary smirk. "It's obvious by now you're not good for anything until you eat. So of course I planned for breakfast."
____________ _____________
They were sitting at a table by themselves. The dining hall was mostly deserted this early in the morning. Vegeta saw Kakkarot stiffen with his fork half-way to his mouth. He turned around. That baka Recoome and his baka pal Burter were coming over.
He snorted and turned back around. "Keep eating."
The two members of the Ginyu Force stood preening in front of their table. "We heard you monkeys are going planet purging today. Your first, eh, Kakkarot?"
He nodded, eyeing them warily.
"I'm surprised at you for picking such a weak planet, Vegeta. What's the matter, going soft now with your baby brother here?"
"The day you don't look stupid posing is the day I go soft, moron." Vegeta scowled at them.
"You little freak! I should crush you right here!" Burter howled.
"I'm afraid that Frieza expects us at a certain time. You wouldn't want to ruin his mission, would you, Bertie?"
Burter picked up Vegeta's container of kwaltan juice and crushed it in his hand. Naturally it splattered all over his hand and arm, and Recoome's feet.
"You are a moron," Recoome said, giving Burter a shove.
Burter shoved back.
"Time to go," Vegeta whispered to Kakkarot. They left the two aliens arguing and headed for their ships.
Frieza met them there. "I expect good work from you, monkey. No more amnesia excuses. You better finish purging this planet."
"Yes, sir," Kakkarot said, trying not to sound sullen.
"The same for you, Vegeta. You know the punishment for failure. Have you enlightened your brother?"
"He'll break every bone in your body," Vegeta told Kakkarot flatly.
Frieza smiled. "Including the tail. I do love playing with you monkeys' tails."
Vegeta didn't dare look at Frieza. He'd be able to see the smoldering hate in his eyes.
"Very well. Off with you then."
The Saiyans climbed into their space pods and blasted off.
____________ ____________
They landed just outside a huge glass, cathedral-like structure on the planet Parmel. "Before the destruction starts, we have a little mission of our own," Vegeta informed Kakkarot. "I told you I had a plan to get one of those gravity devices. Well come on."
They entered the building. It was one huge scientific workshop, full of tall, thin, four-armed, yellow-skinned aliens. "Planet Parmel is well known for its scientific geniuses. You!" He approached the first alien he came across. "We want you to make us a device that is capable of creating up to 500 times normal gravity in a sparring room."
"Certainly. That will take four days. Cash or charge?"
Vegeta held out his hand. It was glowing with ki energy. "Make that four hours and I will spare your miserable lives. If you fail to deliver, I'll destroy your whole planet!"
The alien blanched and all the others stopped working, turning to them in horror. "You can't be serious!"
Vegeta shot a thin ki beam at one of them, who fell dead instantly.
They shrieked in terror.
"All right! We'll do it!" the alien said.
"We'll wait outside." Which they did. Kakkarot suggested they play Rock, Paper, Scissors to pass the time, but after a few rounds, Vegeta grew bored and flew off to destroy the nearest towns. He came back shortly.
"This place is no challenge at all," he complained.
The device was ready in just under 3 hours. Vegeta tried it out at 100 times gravity at once. Everyone was flattened to the floor except himself and Kakkarot. Vegeta smirked. "It works." He turned it off and they left the building. Vegeta destroyed the building and all inside with a particularly spectacular ki blast.
Kakkarot looked at him. "You lied to them."
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Frieza can't know we have this. He'd kill us both. Come on, we have to take care of the rest of the planet."
Kakkarot felt troubled, but pushed it aside. He would keep following Vegeta's lead.