Chapter 17: déjà vu
Trunks grinned to himself as he walked down the many corridors of Capsule Corp home base. He had beaten Goten in their spar earlier that day and now he was ready to go out and enjoy himself with Zara. Everything seemed perfect for the moment.
Trunks rounded the corner and jogged down the stairs to the underground lab that his mother had insisted on having. All of C.C's more dangerous or top-secret experiments took place down here and it was where Zara and Bulma worked the most during the day.
He felt out Zara's ki signature and then made his way to the small office area at the far end of the corridor. He found Zara bent over a desk, rubbing her temples when he walked inside.
"You ok?" he asked. She, surprisingly, jumped at the sound of his voice.
"Trunks? I didn't hear you come in…" she muttered when she caught sight of him. Trunks surveyed her, his face showing concern. She looked pale and drained and she couldn't leave her head alone, almost as if it would break if she didn't try and hold it together. He frowned at the sight of her.
"You ok?" he asked again and she nodded, regretting it as more pain flashed through her head.
"Yea, only a headache, nothing serious." She informed him and Trunks stared at her sceptically.
"Really? 'Cause you look like death." He replied and Zara flashed him a strange look.
"Well that's flattering. I was kind of going more for 'a little pale'" she told him and tried to get more comfortable in her office chair. Trunks sighed and knelt down in front of her.
"You know what I mean. You just look a little off. You sure its just a headache?" he asked and Zara nodded again, something she really should stop doing…
"It is only a headache. Nothing else. Everybody gets them, mine just might be a little worse then normal…" she told him firmly. Trunks nodded but still looked concerned.
"Ok, if you're sure. I'm just kind of worried. You sure you haven't been over doing it?" he asked. Zara sighed.
"I'm sure. I didn't train last night and I haven't even floated a pencil all day. I have done nothing to give me this bad a headache." She said and then regretted it.
"Ah ha! So you admit its bad." Trunks said, glad he managed to get her to admit that much. Zara sighed at him.
"Ok, its bigger then little. But that doesn't make it a bad thing that's panic worthy." She explained.
"Ok then, I'll stop going on about it. But that doesn't mean I'm not worried." Trunks said as he got up.
"So do you still want to go out?" he asked. Zara nodded and stood up, instantly regretting it as pain shot through her head and her legs threatened to give way. Trunks ended up having to support her.
"Ow…" she muttered and the concern on Trunks's face tripled.
"That's it, you are not fine. We're not going anywhere tonight. I don't even want you flying home. You can stay here for the night." He pressed.
"No, Trunks. It's not that bad…as long as I don't move at all. Besides, I don't want to impose." She replied, cradling her head the whole time.
"Hello, this is C.C! We have enough room for a small village! I think we even had one stay here for a while! We should be able to make room for my girl friend." He exclaimed and Zara winced.
"Good point…but do you mind not being so loud?" she asked, flashing him a weak smile. Trunks smiled back.
"Deal." He said softly and then led her up to the living room for a relatively quite evening.
Maleenia had a particularly gleeful smirk on her face as she stepped out of her quarters. She looked round the bridge of her ship as if Christmas had come early.
"Its time we got started with phase two of my plan." She announced and looked to a tall and incredibly skinny, orange alien that was standing by the door.
"You there, go and tell the good folks in engineering that I want the energy vacuum online and operational as soon as possible!" she ordered and the orange creature saluted and ran off in answer.
Piki looked up from his workstation and decided to risk having his head blown off.
"Um…miss Maleenia, sir, isn't that vacuum designed to work along side a psychics influence with dreams? We don't have anyone to use alongside it," he pointed out. Maleenia looked at the little man and for a moment he thought that that was the end of him. But she surprised him and everyone else in the room by flashing a sinister smile.
"Oh don't we?" she asked, grinning whilst everyone else sat completely confused.
Vegeta stepped out of his gravity room after a long days worth of training. It was around midnight and the saiyan prince noted that everybody was all ready in bed. He knew that the onna would be mad at him for staying up for so long but he didn't care. He needed to train and he enjoyed their verbal spars.
Vegeta walked silently into the house never the less and decided to go to bed after a mid-night snack and a long shower. All of which he did.
Finally the prince lay down to rest beside his mate, slipping into a dream filled slumber.
The room was dark, that was all Vegeta really noticed at first. Just that it was dark and smelt like rot.
Then he noticed the shackles on the walls and a small pile of what looked like bones. Vegeta frowned as he realised where he was: a dungeon on Frieza's planet.
"He likes to play with you." A voice muttered and Vegeta spun round to see Zara sat on the floor with her back against the wall. Her head was down and her long hair was down for once, almost shielding her face.
"Who does?" Vegeta asked as he folded his arms, realising it was Zara.
"You know who." She replied and looked up at him. Her eyes were hollow and empty, completely glazed over in such a way that made it seem as though no one was home in that head of hers. It was enough to send a chill down the saiyan's spine.
"You mean Frieza?" he asked. The guess seemed logical, as this was Frieza's dungeon after all.
Zara only continued to stare at him with that glazed over expression until Vegeta couldn't take anymore. He was about to yell at her until the door slid open and a Purple alien that bore a resemblance to a squid stood in the frame.
"Prince Vegeta, Frieza has asked for your presence in the throne room." He announced and then stepped aside so that Vegeta could walk through the door. The prince stared at the exit and looked back to where Zara had sat. She had completely vanished, leaving Vegeta with no choice but to follow the alien.
Vegeta followed the alien through many of the long and winding corridors until they finally reached the throne room. There, Vegeta found the pink lizard king himself sitting in his hover chair and sipping on a glass of wine, just like how Vegeta remembered.
"Ah Vegeta, how good of you to make it. I was worried that you'd have another outburst and I'd have to send a caretaker down to clean Macktos blood out of the carpet." Frieza commented casually as he swirled his wine around in its glass. Vegeta frowned at the lizard and then looked at Zarbon and Dodoria on either side of the hover chair. It was just like all of those years ago when he was Frieza's little slave. Only now one important thing was different.
"Don't cancel the order. That caretaker maybe needed to clean you out of the carpet soon."
Or so he thought.
Frieza's face turned into a mask of rage as he stared at the saiyan 'monkey'.
"Why you insubordinate little monkey! How dare you talk to me like that!" he spat. Vegeta simply smirked.
"I talk to you in the way you deserve to be spoken to. A baka piece of ice-jin trash that has gotten far too big headed then he should be." He replied and Frieza went red with rage.
"Shall we deal with this monkey for you?" Zarbon asked as he and Dodoria both stepped forward to defend their lord. Frieza raised his hand to halt them and stood up in his hover chair.
"No, I'll teach Vegeta the lesson that's coming to him myself." The ice-jin declared and jumped to the floor. Vegeta smirked and lowered into a fighter's stance.
"I'd like to see you try." He declared. He didn't even realise the true nature of his problem until it was too late.
Frieza charged at him and Vegeta began to power up. He was just on the brink of his full power in that form when his aura cut out. He couldn't go super saiyan! Which meant that he didn't stand a chance against Frieza!
Frieza's fist planted itself across Vegeta's jaw and then the tyrant shoved his knee into the saiyan's gut. It really was just like how Vegeta remembered.
Frieza lifted Vegeta by his armour and then kneed the saiyan several times more, earning a loud gasp of pain from the prince every time. The tyrant then sank his elbow hard into the saiyan's back and the prince was sent bouncing hard into the marble floor.
"I don't…understand…how this could be…" Vegeta muttered between breaths. His attention then shifted back to Frieza as the tyrant began to laugh.
"Don't you get it? After all the times I beat you? After all the times I took a chunk out of your pride?" his voice began to change from being croaky to a more familiar voice that belonged to someone Vegeta thought to be a friend.
"After all of the times I rubbed my power in your face," Frieza's skin began to become more tanned and his armour slowly turned orange.
"You still don't understand?" black spikes of hair sprouted out of Frieza's scalp and his red eyes turned black.
"I'm above you and you can't do a thing to catch up." Goku announced as he grinned down at Vegeta. The prince stared at his fellow saiyan in shock. Goku wasn't supposed to talk like that…
"What-?" he began but Goku's foot swung round and sent the saiyan flying into the wall behind him. Vegeta groaned and opened his eyes just in time to see a blast collide with his face. Vegeta screamed in pain as he felt blood trickle down from an open cut.
"Guess I'm not done teaching you yet." Goku's annoyingly cheerful voice greeted Vegeta's ears before he was yanked back on to his feet and felt several painful jabs impact his gut before he was tossed and blasted into the centre of the room. Vegeta groaned and then felt Goku's foot press against his head, pushing down as if to crack the prince's skull open. Vegeta cried out in agony until it felt like Goku would do just that. And for some reason Vegeta found it impossible to fight back.
"Stop!" he yelled and Goku's foot slid off of Vegeta's head. The prince looked up at his old rival to see that Goku was now in his super saiyan form.
"I don't know…" Goku started and Vegeta continued to stare up at Goku, trying to ignore how much he ached and the blood trickling down the side of his head.
Goku looked thoughtful as he continued to think over Vegeta's demand. Finally he looked down at the prince with a perfectly innocent expression.
"Nah, you still have dignity!" he exclaimed, grinning his classic grin before blasting Vegeta into the wall and starting his little game all over again.
In the real world, Vegeta's eyes were scrunched up tightly as his dream continued to play out. He would have been thrashing about but he was somehow paralysed from the head down. No body else in the house knew what was happening to the prince and so nobody came to try and wake him up.
Vegeta continued to dream whilst a shadow lay across him. A shadow that belonged to a certain Kalroo that was standing over his bed with her fingers held gently next to his temples whilst her eyes stayed completely glazed over and hollow as if nobody was there. Across her chest lay the amulet Trunks had given her, the gem in the middle was glowing softly as the dream continued…