Disclaimer: I do NOT, under any circumstances own DBZ, but when I rule the universe it will belong to me and…what? I won't rule the Universe?…damn… Oh well… on with the story…
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FROZEN IN TIME
Chapter 1"Now for negotiations, Vejita," said a feminine voice. "I want the Prince."
"B-but, Lord Freiza, Vegeta is still a mere child. He has yet to learn everything about the Saiyan Empire that he needs to know to be King," protested King Vegeta.
"Fine, I will allow three others to go with him; the strongest soldiers in your armies to protect him from my men or your greatest scholars to tutor him. The choice is up to you. Take it, or have your planet be the next on my purging list," stated Freiza.
Vejita tried with all his might to hide his inner turmoil from the pink tyrant. "You leave me with no choice," the King replied finally to Freiza, bowing his head. He seemed to be in deep thought, when suddenly his head snapped up. "Guard, go retrieve my son, Meliah, and Nappa from the training room and get Nappa's daughter… I forget her name… from the science wing."
The guard, who had heard every word of his leader's conversation with Freiza, simply stared at the king. He could not believe that the Great King Vegeta, strongest of the Saiyans, had given up so easily. Now the Prince, Nappa, his sparring partner, and Nappa's weakling brat would all be under the tyrannical rule of Freiza. There was no telling what kind of horrors the four Saiyans would be put through.
"Well Vegeta," Freiza mocked, "it seems that you monkeys are by far more incompetent then I thought. Your guards can't even follow orders." With a cruel smirk he added, "Oh, and by the way, incompetent means mentally lacking."
Vegeta took the insult; he was after all lower in rank than Freiza. The foolish guard would pay later for disregarding the order that resulted in the humiliation of the Saiyan king. "Guard, I just gave you an order," the king whispered menacingly, "and if you do not do what I commanded right now, I will make sure that your entire family is killed in front of you…"
"Tsk, Tsk, Vegeta, you really are too harsh on your men," scolded Freiza in a sarcastic tone.
"Yes of course, Lord Freiza," Vejita replied, only half listening. The idea of his son being under the constant supervision of this pink monster sent shivers down the king's back.
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"Come on Vegeta," a young girl drawled as she watched, nonchalantly, as a small boy beat the living tar out of a colossal warrior twenty feet above her, "you can do better than that. Stop playing with him. I would really like to fight while I'm young." She had shoulder length, unruly, light brown hair and unusually colored steely blue eyes. Clad with a white suit of armor over a royal blue spandex suit, her brown tail twitching behind her in impatience.
"Alright, alright, I'll finish him, then we spar. You are the most irritating Saiyan wench that I have ever had the displeasure to know, do you know that? Damned evil too. I think even Freiza would be considered a nice…uh…well, whatever you want to consider Freiza, compared to you," the young prince shouted as he knocked the large fighter to the ground.
"Why, thank you Vegeta," she gushed with what almost seemed like actual pleasure. "I didn't know that you could be such a pleasant person! Now maybe I won't kick your ass like last time."
"Sure Meliah. You? Kick my ass? I think not! Last time I let you win 'cause I figured you needed an ego boost. I won't go easy on you this time. I am the Prince of the Saiyans, and no one, particularly an evil Saiyan wench like yourself, is more powerful than me!" bragged Vegeta.
"Delusional," muttered Meliah.
"I heard that brat!" roared the deep male voice of a guard standing in the training arena door. "You could be killed for such treason against the Royal Family of Vegeta-sei!" The bald burly guard started for the much smaller five-year old girl.
"Nappa! You will not touch her! We were sparring, now go away!" barked Vegeta as he floated down towards the two of them.
"My Prince," Nappa said as he bowed low, "your father wishes for the four of us to see him in the throne room."
"Four? Nappa, I think you are possibly getting even more ignorant by the day, because there are only three of us…"he trailed off when he saw Meliah shaking her head.
"Vegeta, look behind him," she stated simply.
From behind Nappa came a small girl around five years old. She had sea-colored hair, large cerulean eyes, and a brown tail that was wrapped tightly around her small waist.
"Brat," Nappa growled, "I thought I told you to wait in the hall? You are a disgrace, you should not even be allowed in the presence of the Prince!" The stupid looking guard's face contorted in disgust as he glared at the small girl.
Vegeta, having seen some of the strongest men in the universe fall to their knees and beg for mercy under that glare, expected the meek looking girl to apologize to the giant man before her. The prince was extremely shocked when her innocent appearance melted away and burned into a fiery look of hatred. This girl was either secretly powerful, or incredibly stupid; considering who her father was Vegeta was betting on the latter.
"Being my father does not give you the right to insult me! You, 'father', are the disgrace! You may be strong, but you have the intelligence of a dead stump!" she raged at the large man. Just when everyone thought she was done with her little outburst she continued, "And another thing, I am not as weak as you may think I am. Just because your pathetic scouters say that I have a low ki you automatically believe that I am weak. Well, I'm not! I found a way to hide my ki from those worthless scouters, so that if I ever need to hide I only need push a button."
Nappa just stood there looking shell-shocked, Vegeta raised an eyebrow, and Meliah simply smirked. "Know what?" the auburn-haired Saiyan girl asked, "I think you and I are going to be great friends." Putting an arm around the girl's shoulders, she continued, "My name's Meliah. What's yours?"
"Bulma," the meek looking spitfire replied suspiciously.
"Well Bulma, lets go see what his Kingship wants." The two girls walked off followed by a smirking Prince Vegeta and a bewildered Nappa.
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The four Saiyans walked into the throne room where King Vegeta and Freiza were waiting impatiently for them. Prince Vegeta crossed his arms and glared at them both. He was incredibly irritated with his father for interrupting his training and he simply hated the pink lizard.
Meliah had told him not to trust Freiza; she merely said that there was something shady about the tyrant that drove her to believe that he could be extremely dangerous. Coming from most it would seem like nothing important that anyone could figure out, but there was a certain story in Meliah's past that drove one to take her warnings even more seriously.
Several years back, Meliah's mother, Kiya, had been on a purging mission with Captain Bardock. When he received his curse, and Kiya had been cursed as well. Bardock could see the future of his people if they continued to head down their same path of death and destruction, and Kiya could hear the thoughts of anyone she ever met so she could hear the tortured screams of her victims as they died. At the time, Kiya was pregnant with Meliah and the curse had been passed on to her daughter as well. Kiya, as strong as she may have been, was driven insane by the curse, and was killed for honor, or so the tale goes. Meliah, on the other hand was born with the curse and over time she learned to control how often she heard the thoughts of others. Meliah had tuned in on Freiza's thoughts and she knew exactly what the lizard was planning.
"Brat," King Vejita barked, "you and that wench you call a sparring partner, will be going with Freiza when he departs for his station tomorrow." Covering his sadness at his last words the king continued, "Nappa, you will go with the boy as his guard and that brat of yours will go as his tutor."
Vegeta stood stone still, feeling completely shocked and betrayed by his father's actions. He had given up his own son, and he didn't even seem to care. He looked at Meliah, who didn't seem in the least surprised. ::I'll ask her what happened later. She seems to know what's going on.:: "I don't need a guard, Your Highness," the prince spat bitterly. "I can defend myself and Meliah well enough. The tutor can come as well, for Meliah's sake, but not Nappa."
"Well, well, the Monkey Prince is very confident of his strength. So, Monkey
Boy, you think you can defend yourself and the wench, do you? Alright then let's have you prove it,"
mocked Freiza, "Zarbon, Dodoria! Get in here!"
A tall, feminine looking, blue man with green hair and a overweight pink blob of flesh appeared in the doorway. "Yes, Lord Freiza?" they asked in unison.
"I want you to attack the Monkey Prince. He thinks he can defend himself against my elite warriors. Isn't that sweet?"
Zarbon and Dodoria began chuckling. "Alright then little prince," drawled Zarbon lazily in his strange accent, "if you believe you can defend yourself, I'd be more than happy to prove you wrong." All at once Zarbon, Dodoria, and Prince Vegeta slid into a fighting stance. Zarbon moved quickly forward and was about to strike Vegeta with a near fatal blow to the neck when, suddenly, Meliah appeared in front of him.
"You will not touch the Prince," she growled. "We will go quietly and take Nappa and Bulma with us. Do not hit him," she continued in quiet and calm voice. Normally Meliah would have began yelling at the top of her lungs, swearing in every language she knew, and she knew quite a few.
"H-h-how is that possible?" stammered Dodoria. "Sh-she just blocked your attack! I couldn't even follow her movements!"
"Meliah, I don't need you to fight my battles for me. Back down, now!" commanded Vegeta.
"Vegeta, she's right. We should go quietly," piped the small voice of Bulma.
"I will not be ordered around by a little girl!" he shouted back.
Bulma's lips tightened and her eyes narrowed in rage. "Listen here, Vegeta!" she growled in a low voice. "You will get on that ship! I may be a little girl, but I can scream for very loud and for a very long time, and if you want to have your hearing intact for the next time you fight, I suggest that you agree NOW!" she growing surprisingly louder to a decibel that was amazing for one so small.
Everyone in the room, except Nappa and Meliah, were staring at Bulma, open-mouthed. Her father looked extremely annoyed and Meliah was looking at Bulma with a smug smirk. It seemed that she had met the one other girl on the planet that was willing to stand up to the self-proclaimed 'all powerful' Prince Vegeta. Not only had she stood up to the arrogant prince, but she had also had the gall to order him around.
::Wow! She reminds me of Meliah, only she's prettier.::
**I heard that Vegeta! You forge that I can read your mind, and now I have a new friend that will help me kick your butt in verbal sparring.**
::Damn…:: Vegeta shook his head and returned to the real world. "Fine girl, I'll go just stop screaming!"
"That's better," Bulma said with a smile, "come on Meliah lets go. I wanna show you my ki damper. Maybe we can use it on Vegeta," said Bulma as she grabbed Meliah's arm and started to drag her down the hall.
"Lets go Veg-head," called Meliah as she was dragged down the hall.
"ARGH! What did you call me girl?" Vegeta yelled back.
"She called you Veg-head, Veggie-chan," teased Bulma.
"Don't call me that! Wait up!" he shouted
"Brat, the three of you had best pack your bags," ordered King Vegeta.
"Fine, fine, we'll pack Father."
"Come on Veggie-chan," called a female voice from down the hall.
"I told you not to call me that!" he thundered as he dashed down the hall after them.
"No, you said not to call you Veg-head," countered the voice of Meliah. "So we didn't."
"We called you Veggie-chan," added the voice of Bluma.
"That shall be your name from this day on," Meliah proclaimed in a regal tone.
"I'm going to pack," Vegeta grumbled bitterly as he stormed off down the hall to his rooms.
"You sounded like a princess just then. I bet that you will be the princess of Vegeta-sei some day," stated Bulma matter-of-factually.
"Nah," Meliah replied to her new found friend, "I think someone else is going to be Vegeta's mate. I'm sure of it."
"If you say so, but he is really cute, even for a boy!" The two girls walked off to pack for their departure the next day.
Meliah laughed to herself. *They have no idea…*
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A/n: Well I combined the first two chapters because they were annoyingly short, and I also edited most of the swearing. I realized that it sounds unnatural for me to swear and I just don't like doing it. So there you have it. Well what did you think? Please review or I will be forced to drop this story entirely.
~*~The Rogue Raven~*~