Title: Another Life: Return of the Fallen
Chapter Four: Prove Yourself - Saiyajin Style
A brown square-headed alien who introduced himself as Bénán came to retrieve her. He led her down a rounded corridor with many windows showing her a very dull, black sight. Pan saw a bright dot in the vast darkness, but it didn't twinkle.
They stopped at two enormous doors – more wide than they were tall – and Bénán bent down at the black box and said that he had brought Kaka.
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"Lord Rhoune told me. Now get in there," he said and left.
"Oh, Bénán!" Rhoune called.
He reappeared in the doorway.
"Come in here," she said, "you forgot to bow."
He shuffled in and it seemed to Pan that his features were strained in order to keep them neutral. He placed a fist over his chest, knelt and bent so low that his square forehead touched the floor. Then suddenly Bénán was sailing through the open doors and crashing into the far wall. Pan stared wildly at Rhoune, whose bracelet was only just now clattering on the floor, then looked back to Bénán, whose head had been entirely disintegrated. The doors slid shut and Rhoune picked up her bracelet and rehooked it.
"Please forgive me, Kaka, but that is what happens to the men that displease me. Bénán lied. The poor fool," she said, sitting back down on her throne.
Pan nodded, quashing the nauseous feeling in her gut. She wanted to ask how she knew her name, but then figured that Totan must have told her. So instead she asked:
"What is this place?"
"This ship? Think of it as a moving army base, equipped with weapons and soldiers, pilots and scientists… things along that line. Our business is planet trade. A planet full of untouched or accessible elements is worth a good lot from the buyers," she explained.
"How do you get the planets?" Pan asked.
"Most of the planets in this quadrant are uninhabited, or at least don't have any intelligent life on them anymore. But we have started to move out of this quadrant, expanding our territory, I suppose. The buyers are very fickle sometimes, wanting the planets to be habitable along with having so many good resources available. They should be lucky I let them live in my quadrant," Rhoune said, her voice suddenly bitter.
"Your quadrant?"
"Yes," she smiled, "this is my quadrant. There is more than this ship; and there is more than the tiny army that I have aboard this ship. I command an empire, my dear. Originally commanded by a family known as Kold. The Kold that had charge of this quadrant was an Ice-jin known as Freeza."
Pan went stiff and her breath caught in her throat. She kept her face from betraying her surprise, but her eyes had gone wide and she knew it, she just hoped Rhoune didn't notice. Years ago she had heard the story of Freeza from her father, but she had been too young to really remember any specific details. Pan remembered that he wasn't human, that he was an evil tyrant who had wanted to rule the universe and had tried to kill Grandpa Gokuu.
Oh, what had she gotten herself into? Maybe there was a chance for her to still leave, but again she asked herself: where is there to go? And the answer was still the same: nowhere.
"Totan tells me that you're rather powerful," Rhoune said, taking the subject away from Freeza, "and if that's true then I could use someone like you. If you know how to fight, that is."
"I do," Pan said quickly.
"Do you? Then perhaps you would be willing to give me a demonstration later. I will have some of my men prepare the training quarters. And while that is being done you can get a new attire, you've been wearing those much too long," Rhoune said, almost mockingly.
"How would you know?" Pan snapped and regretted her attitude immediately. It occurred to her then that she must smell awful because she had been wearing her outfit for what had to be weeks now.
"The blood on your pants. It's brown and dry," Rhoune explained simply.
"Oh."
Rhoune pulled up the armrest of her chair and spoke into the intercom, originally ordering for the cybamen to be prepared, but then canceled that and said to have the whiteskins be made ready. She also had someone – another squat, brown alien – come up to escort Pan through the ship.
"Find her some dress and armor. We're going to see how good you are, Kaka."
Somehow this thing – woman – was connected to Freeza, which, in Pan's mind, made her just as evil.
--
Pan tried to make a mental map of the corridors as she was led down them, but after several turns she gave up. It was still too new and her mind was still too jumbled. The rotund creature in front of her waddled along, leading her down a conveyor belt to a thick steel door. He smacked it, hard.
"Lord Rhoune demands a training session for the new recruit!"
Moments later the door squeaked and parted for them. They walked into the room: a reflective black material covered an entire wall and the rest was made of some foreign, black-grayish metal. There was another door and the brown creature opened it for her, saying she would find a couple spare suits in there that she could wear. Pan looked and indeed there were some navy blue jumpsuits hanging on a bar extended across the room. She snatched down one of them and looked back to the alien, who was still standing in the door.
"Do you mind?" she asked, irritated.
"Mind what?" he asked.
"Closing the door so I can get changed?" Pan snapped.
"Oh," he said, eyeing her oddly, "of course not."
The door closed with a hiss and a click. She took off her shirt and put it to her nose; it reeked of sweat and a scent that told her she had been wearing it far too long. Pan peeled off her jeans, which had been plastered onto her legs – refused to take off her undergarments - then picked up the jumpsuit. There was no zipper in the back, no button in the front; so just how was she supposed to put it on? Then she noticed that it was really a two-piece outfit and pulled the top from the pants. She dressed, put her sneakers back on and fitted an armor plating over her head, which was very uncomfortable.
When she came out, there were four… things in the room. White, hairless things with black eyes much too large for their faces, two long teeth that hung from the tops their mouths and claws that could have used some clipping. Pan made a face at one of them; it was drooling. The cy-whatevers probably wouldn't have looked any better.
The animals – if they could be called that – fell onto all fours and rushed at her together, snarling and frothing. Pan pulled her lips long in annoyance, put up her fists and waited for them.
--
Behind the black mirror, Lord Rhoune watched intently. Her swirled, inhuman eyes followed Pan's fluent motions; she lacked grace, but she had obvious skill. Pan kicked away one of the whiteskins with just one quick motion, sending it flying into the far wall. The animal stuck for a minute and then fell, a large dent in the metal from where it had impacted – that had never happened before. One of the slobbering animals had leapt onto her, claws embedded deep into her thighs. A dark stain was seeping out and into her suit. But the whiteskin was ripped from her leg, ripping several long gashes in the suit and in her skin; Pan threw it up in the air and blew a hole straight through its stomach.
Rhoune smiled. That was what she wanted to see. Ruthlessness. Aggression. She was impressed that Kaka had been so willing to kill it after it had harmed her, which meant that it wouldn't be too difficult to turn her into a mass murderer. Rhoune didn't even need to watch the rest of the session, she knew that Kaka would be perfect for the job, but she stayed anyway. Another whiteskin went careening into the wall; the other into the black two-way mirror, long cracks appearing in it. She marched into the training room, green cape sweeping behind her.
"Splendid work, my pet! You will make a nice addition to my crew," Rhoune said, then added: "You can take another suit from the room there, unless you like the tears in it now."
"I just don't like this armor. It's annoying," Pan said, trying to readjust the aforementioned item.
"Oh? You're the first being to ever complain about it."
"It pushes down on my chest. I don't think this thing was designed for women," she said.
"Hmm. Then it can modified, if you'd like," Rhoune offered.
"No, no," Pan said, wrestling to get the armor up and over her head. She finally got it off and dropped it on the ground, saying, "I'll just go without."
"Very well then. Dés will take you to get a meal, then back to your quarters."
Pan nodded, figuring the brown alien was Dés and said, "Okay."
Rhoune went to leave, but then turned back around.
"If you don't mind my saying, you look very Saiyajin… especially in that attire. All that you're missing is a monkey tail."
"I am Saiyajin. A full-blooded Saiyajin," she lied. "My tail was cut off in a fight."
Rhoune grinned and nodded once. "The Saiyajin are an extinct race. Their planet was destroyed many years ago, but you look much too young to know anything about that. Where are you from again?" she asked.
She spat the name with loathing: "Earth".
"I'm curious about your story, but I have other business to attend to and you must be tired after such a long journey and so little sleep. Please, eat and rest. Then we will talk again and you will tell me about 'Earth'," Rhoune said and left through the heavy doors.
Pan stared after her, even when she could no longer see her, with her brows drawn down in bewilderment.
--
The door of his cell opened, sliding back into the wall and Piccolo already recognized the silhouette by the hair that was piled atop the head. It seemed like he had spent hours in darkness concentrating on the sliver of light at the bottom of the door and Rhoune had still come too soon. He needed more time to ponder over her words, over what she could possibly want and how he was going to kill Pan when he found her.
"Hello, Piccolo," she greeted.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"Watch your manners, Namek. I can kill you, or starve you, or just torture you… depends on how angry you want to make me."
Piccolo decided that he wouldn't tell her that he didn't eat.
He had an idea as to what she wanted to know and if she killed him she would learn nothing. The idea of dying again was unflattering; Gokuu had given his life to get him out of Hell. Now, if he died again then not only would he return to that wretched place, but it would feel as if he had wasted the life that Gokuu had given to him. He remained silent and waited for Rhoune to go on.
"What do you know about the Lord Freeza?" she asked.
He looked up at her from his seat on the floor.
"That he was an evil tyrant who wanted to rule the universe," he said, then on a hunch he continued, "and used whoever he needed to get what he wanted."
Rhoune's eyes narrowed. What was the connection to Freeza?
"What do you know about him?" Piccolo asked.
"This interrogation does not work both ways. I ask you questions, you answer, and that is all," Rhoune said crisply. "Now, what happened on your planet?"
"I told you before, I wasn't born on Namek and I didn't live there either," he said.
"Namek, if you don't tell me what happened on your planet before it exploded, you are going to spend a very long time writhing on the floor, begging me to kill you."
Piccolo raised his brows in challenge. He wasn't going to beg to go back to Hell. But what could he tell her? He was telling her the truth – he was just leaving out a few details.
"I didn't live there," he enunciated slowly, "so how would I know?"
Rhoune's Block bracelet fell to the ground and her hand went around his throat – her fingers didn't have any nails. She formed a small, bright ball of ki in her other hand and held it in front of his face. Without the ability to protect himself with his ki, he would be in serious trouble if she wanted to fire that at him.
"Tell me the truth. Now," she demanded.
He didn't respond. He had repeated himself enough.
She shoved her hand into his face, the sphere of ki exploding against his cheek and his closed eyelid. Piccolo cried out, his hands immediately going to the side of his face. He cupped his hands over the wound, not daring to touch the raw, scalded flesh that he knew was there. Another small ki blast burst against his neck, then two on his ribs, two more on his back and then onto his thigh. Piccolo clenched his fangs and groaned loudly.
"Perhaps when I visit you again you will be more eager to talk," Rhoune spat.
The door closed, leaving Piccolo alone in the blackness once again. He cupped one hand over his face and another at his side; there was nothing he could do to ease the pain. Despite being unprotected against even the tiniest attacks, he knew it could have been worse. The pain was bearable and his regeneration capabilities would have him healed in a couple days. Until then he would have to bear it, but he was far from writhing in agony.
--
There was a beeping warning coming from the controls and a minute later there were several small objects smacking against Vegeta's ship and ricocheting off. It wasn't an asteroid or any tiny rocks, it was pieces of metal that were leaving faint dents in the hull as they hit. Then something else smacked against the ship that wasn't metal and, somehow, he automatically knew the sound – it was a body. It slipped off and passed by one of the windows: an alien body with Saiyajin armor. If there had been anything left he would have gone out to investigate, but their ship had been completely obliterated.
A tiny voice was gnawing at the back of his head, telling him he knew what was going on. Other than Saiyajins, the only people who had ever received their armor were the ones who had worked under Freeza. This had something to do with Freeza. But there had been no one left to take charge, so why were they still pirating and capturing ships? Idiots. Probably just didn't want to lose the muscle they had. And they got blown up for it.
His ship plowed through the debris. It would be another two days before he reached the spot where Piccolo had been captured. What would have taken Piccolo three days to travel in his ship took Vegeta only one.
Still, after so many years – over a decade – whatever had been left of Freeza's empire should have fallen. Yet there was obviously something left of it.
Vegeta would enjoy destroying it.
Author's Note – I hope a few things have been explained, but there is still much to come. ;) I don't have a lot of free time on my hands, but I do try to keep up. And remember: review, review, review!
Thank You's To – My beta-reader, Steve, as always. ^_^ Also, my reviewers: Dreamwraith and Chaotic-Souls (and by the by, you are right… they would have jumped for joy ;) I know what happened, and I plan on working it into the story later on)
Planned Update – 6/3
