Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ

Chapter 7

The bright training room lights glared down on Vegeta as he punched and kicked the air. It had been three days since he had awoken from the rejuvenation tank, three days since Ilya made her proposal, and he had yet to come to a decision.

He didn't need help, he didn't want help. Only HE was allowed to kill Freiza, no one else. Vegeta had practiced the scenario in his head so many times. He would kneel over Freiza's broken body and laugh as he dealt the final blow. He would savor everything about that moment; the sound of Freiza begging for mercy, the sight of the life draining from the changeling's body, the feeling of triumph and relief after he was finally dead. It would all be his, and he would not share it.

But how many more years of quiet servitude would it take before he was strong enough? The saiyan knew he was still no where near Freiza's strength, but neither was Ilya. Vegeta couldn't figure out how she planned to defeat him, which is why he still half suspected the entire plot to be some kind of trick. The female ice-jin was coming today, to meet with Freiza, and Vegeta needed to give her an answer. He decided he would eat, talk to Ketriana and then make his decision. His whole body seemed to cringe when he thought of Ketriana. It angered him to think of Freiza beating her, a reaction which only enraged him more. He knew she was a weakness, a weakness which he must eventually overcome.

Vegeta left the training rooms and headed down to the mess hall where he met up with Raditz and Nappa. Vegeta hardly ever saw them; they existed in two very different circles. Vegeta was a high ranking assassin and a member of Freiza's personal guard while Raditz and Nappa were nothing but lowly planet purgers. Vegeta didn't know why he met with them at all any more. Some deep seeded sense of inter-species comrodery.

Ketriana pulled herself from her pod, gingerly stretching her arms and cracking her neck, still groggy from cold sleep. She ran a hand threw her cropped short brown hair and trudged to the other side of the building, deciding to have a smoke before reporting in to Freiza. She lit a cigarette and closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax for a few moments. She opened her eyes and nearly jumped when Vegeta suddenly appeared next to her.

"Dammit, Vegeta don't startle me like that." She snapped clutching her chest.

Vegeta crossed his arms and got straight to the point, "Where were you?"

"Assassinating Prince Gaphnor and the rest of the Keit royal family." The warrior stated matter-of-factly, "Turns out they were involved in some rebellion plan against Freiza"

Vegeta's eyes widened. "You mean…"

"Mmm" Ketriana said as she took a long hit and then exhaled into the night sky, "Ilya's rebellion plan. What do you think she was doing at that party? Luckily there wasn't anything in the files Mahlah hacked mentioning Ilya or Benzain."

"Shit! That ice-jin bitch! Does she think Freiza is stupid? Ilya knew he was going to find out about this and she still sent me to Dowajain."

"Don't worry, Freiza just thinks you're doing drugs again… which you are, so you can always use that as an excuse if it comes down to it."

"That's comforting," he sneered.

"Has she cornered you too then? About joining her little uprising?" the older warrior asked.

"She's being careless. It will never work."

"I'm not so sure." Ketriana replied after a pause, tossing her cigarette and grinding it into the gray dirt. "I told her I was in."

Vegeta stared at her in shock.

Ketriana laughed. "Ilya was as surprised as you are."

"I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one." He answered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm tired, Vegeta. Of everything. Of being forced to risk my life just so Freiza can assimilate one more planet into his empire." She sighed and stared at the horizon, "If I'm going to die, it's going be fighting against Freiza, not for him. Speaking of which, I have to go report in. Ilya wants us all to meet tonight in cargo bay five, we can head down there after I give my report." And with that they disappeared around the corner.

Ketriana and Vegeta made their way down to the cargo bay where Vegeta usually met with Jeice.

"Have you officially joined yet?" Ketriana asked.

"No. I'll decide after I hear what Ilya has to say."

"Mm. I hope she makes it quick, I'm off again tomorrow morning."

"Already?" Vegeta asked suspiciously.

"I know, it's strange. Freiza's never sent me out again so soon."

The elevator jolted to a stop and the doors opened to reveal the cargo bay where Pika and Ilya were already waiting for them.

"Good," Ilya said as she noticed Vegeta and Ketriana approaching, "Everyone's here, we can begin."

Ilya slung a gray sack off of her shoulder and reached into it. She pulled out what appeared to be a scouter, except it was smaller and bright red.

"We'll use these to communicate," the changeling tossed one to each of them, "They operate on a closed frequency so no one will be able to intercept the transmissions."

The woman paused to gather her thoughts before continuing, "You all know why we're here so I'll get straight to the point. Twelve years ago Benzain led a rebellion against Freiza that cost all three you of your home planets. You're all that's left of your worlds, two princes and a princess. But Benzain has learned from his mistakes, he has come up with a plan the can work if it is executed correctly. Unfortunately…" she paused," …I can't let you know what that plan is, not yet. Not while you're still here with Freiza and there's any chance that he could get a hold of you. If there's one thing that Freiza's good at it's getting information out of people. But don't worry, you'll all know everything soon enough."

"Then why the hell are we here? It's too dangerous meeting like this if you have nothing useful to tell us!" Vegeta barked.

"Patience, young Saiyan," Ilya replied agitatedly, "I can't tell you the entire plan, but I can tell you part of it.

Vegeta growled but decided to listen on.

"Before we even think about getting anywhere near Freiza there are nine people who need to be taken out of the picture first: the seven members of the Ginyu Force, Dodoria and Zarbon. We'll start with the Ginyu."

"Why the Ginyu first? Zarbon and especially Dodoria are much weaker? Shouldn't we start with them?" Pika asked.

"No way. They're almost never out of Freiza's sight. If they turn up dead he's going to suspect something. We need to keep this a secret operation as long as we possibly can. Sooner or later we're all going to have to disappear and start fighting this battle full time but the more of the Ginyu we can finish off before we have to make ourselves known the better." Ilya answered.

"And just how do you intend to take out any members of the Ginyu without the rest of them finding out how? They never get sent out on individual missions, they're always sent out together." Vegeta asked skeptically.

"That does present a problem. It's easy enough for me to find out where the Ginyu are being sent. What we're going to have to do is find a way to separate them, take them out one at a time, one mission at a time." Ilya replied. "Depending on the difficultly I can have soldiers from Benzain's army complete any assignments Freiza gives you. That way we can concentrate on the Ginyu. I'll find out where they're being sent next and then contact you again. There's not much we can do until then so that's all for now."

Pika and Ketriana got into the lift to leave but Vegeta stayed behind.

When the others were gone Vegeta spoke up. "Acting so soon?"

"Why wait? Now seems as good a time as any."

"I've had enough! Drop the act, Ilya. And tell me why you're really doing this or I'm out."

Ilya smiled. "Alright. I'll tell you. But in order for you to fully understand my motives there are a few things I need to explain first. You see Vegeta, Freiza is not just any ice-jin, he's prince of the ice-jin and he and my father, Lord Cooler, are involved in a little competition as we speak. Their father, King Cold has given them a hundred years. One hundred years in which to enslave and conquer as many worlds as possible. At the end of the century he will look at their respective empires and decide who the heir will be. In this little game of their's anything goes, there are no rules. My father came up with the brilliant idea of having me start a rebellion. If we win, Freiza is out of the picture, and even if we lose Freiza will be forced to destroy a significant portion of his own empire. Either way, my father wins. What my father doesn't know is that once I have control of Freiza's armies…" Ilya stopped to savor the thought, "… I intend to crush his. With both Freiza and Cooler gone my grandfather will have no choice but to name me the heir. You can have the galaxy Vegeta… I'm after much bigger things."

"You're insane!" Vegeta sneered.

Ilya threw her head back and laughed. "Maybe so. Changelings live too long. We all go a little mad after about the second century. " She walked slowly up to Vegeta and patted him lightly on the check, "But don't you worry Vegeta darling. I'll take good care of you."

She then turned, gathered her things and disappeared.

The next morning Vegeta was summoned by Freiza. He made his way grudgingly down the corridor, dreading the meeting. The last time he appeared before Freiza he ended up spending a week in a re-gen tank. He waited outside until Zarbon called him in.

Freiza was in his usual place, sitting in his strange hover chair, staring at a map of the sector displayed on the main viewing screen. He heard Vegeta enter and turned to greet him.

"Ah, Vegeta, do come in, I have special assignment for you."

Vegeta stood before the ice-jin warlord, face expressionless, praying that Freiza would not be able to tell that he was hiding a very large secret.

"I've decided to give you a chance to redeem yourself," the tyrant began.

"Sir?"

"Don't play dumb, Vegeta. You're behavior lately has been less than satisfactory to say the least. I don't know what exactly you have been doing, but I will find out, I assure you of that."

Inside, Vegeta was screaming, "he knows" But his exterior stayed calm and unresponsive, a feat he had perfected over the years.

"Do you really think that you can hide it from me for long? That I am not aware of everything that goes on in my empire? I know that there is a rebellion being planned right now. There is always some rebellion being planned, always some group of backwater weaklings who get the ill-conceived idea into their pathetic heads that they can somehow defeat me, the all-powerful Freiza." Freiza stared at Vegeta, searching for a twitch, a cringe, anything that might reveal deception, but the Saiyan remained indifferent.

"I recently became aware of a rebellion being planned that is on a slightly bigger scale. I know that the Keit royal family was involved and all this sneaking around you've been doing has made me very, very suspicious. And so, I have devised a way for you to prove your loyalty to me. I know of at least one member of my personal guard that is part of this new rebellion. I have sent the warrior to the planet Syphus, you are too meet and kill said warrior and bring me back the head to prove that you have done so. You will complete this task and return in three days time or, Vegeta, you will die, and you will die slowly. Am I understood?"

The changeling's tone was cold and direct and Vegeta knew that he had meant every word. It took every once of the teenager's concentration to remain unaffected.

"Yes sir, I understand." Was all he could manage.

"Good, you'll leave immediately." Freiza said before turning back to the map of his vast empire.

Zarbon grinned as he handed Vegeta the data chip detailing his mission and an awful sense of foreboding filled the teenager.

Vegeta went directly to the launching bay. He gave the specified coordinates to a technician who programmed it into the Saiyan's pod.

It was a short journey to Syphus, just under a day at full speed. Vegeta arrived at the designated spot early. Syphus was one of Freiza's many 'labor planets', it was all factories and assembly plants where pods and scouters and such were produced. Vegeta entered an abandoned warehouse, apparently the poor sap he was supposed to kill thought he was rendezvousing with him to receive further orders. He sat and waited for his target to arrive. Eventually he dosed off and was awakened a few hours later by footsteps and the turning of a handle. Night had fallen and the warehouse was almost pitch black. Vegeta crouched behind an empty crate and readied himself to attack. Moonlight poured in through the open door and a small shadowed figure appeared. Immediately Vegeta launched himself, surprising the warrior with a powerful blow in the stomach. The other solider countered with a viscous jab to the Saiyan's ribs. The prince spun around and rammed his elbow into the other's head, sending him flying. Vegeta gathered ki in his fist as he pinned the other warrior. He pulled back, aiming for the other's neck but stopped.

Ketriana and Vegeta stared at each other, an identical shocked expression plastered on each. Minutes passed and still they did not move, Vegeta's fist still frozen above him.

"Vegeta," Ketriana finally spoke up, "What's going on?"

The Saiyan's fist flew. Ketriana cringed but relaxed a moment later to see Vegeta's arm implanted into the ground next to her head.

"THAT FUCKING BASTARD!" Vegeta screamed. He lifted himself off the ground, yanking Ketriana up roughly.

"Do you have the communicator Ilya gave you?" he spoke quickly

"Yes, but…" she answered, still confused.

"Give it to me now!" he yelled.

Ketriana quickly reached into the bag at her waist and handed the small red scouter to Vegeta. The Saiyan put the piece to his ear and activated it.

"Ilya, this is Vegeta, come in…………. Dammit you stupid bitch, answer me!"

"I'm here, I'm here, what is it?" Ilya answered threw static.

"Me and Ketriana are going to Benzain's compound , you will meet us there tomorrow."

"What? Why? I can't! I have to…"

"JUST DO IT!" Vegeta raged.

"Alright! I can be there tomorrow night, but this better be important!"

"Good. And Ilya… I'm officially in."

Well, there you have it. There's actually a PLOT developing.. gasp

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