"Aww…look at the little beta playing solider."

"Why don't you run back to daddy and leave the fighting to real warriors? A beta of your power level has no place in war!"

"Yeah. The only thing a beta like you is good for is baring cubs, although I'm not sure he'll give any alpha strong offspring."

Jeers like these rang in his head. They echoed becoming louder and harsher with each sequence. He covered his head to try and block out the sound.

"If you can escape the maze before time is up or your hunter finds you, you're free to go."

"Come out, come out wherever you are. It's only a matter of time before I catch you! Then you're mine."

"Too bad, monkey. You'll just have to try again later. Zarbon, he's all yours."

A whimper came from him as the memories of hands harshly grabbing at him. He cried as he tried to get away from it, and the memory faded into dust. He curled himself to make his body smaller to hide.

"Come on, Kakarot! Punch harder! I know you can!" The older saiyan taunted as he pulled his little brother into a headlock.

"I'm trying, Raditz! You're just stronger than me. I'll never overpower you. Damn it! Let go!" The 8 year old squirmed and twisted trying to get lose.

"Hey, I might be stronger physically, so use your head!" Raditz playfully flicked him on the head drawing a cry of protest from the little beta. "Don't limit yourself, use any advantage you can."

"You mean like this?" He sank his teeth into his big brother's wrist.

"OW! You little bastard! You didn't have to bite me!"

Sadness overwhelmed him and tears leaked out of his closed eyes. He wanted to sink into that memory and never come out.

"Subject appears to be able to carry. He's not fully mature but he's exactly what Lord Frieza was looking for."

"So we don't need to go after anymore small or individual saiyans? Good. Now he can help rebuild the army he decimated when we captured him. I thought his kind were weaker than the others!"

"Obviously you haven't fought saiyans before. Their women and male carriers are just as capable as the rest of their filthy race." The foot on the back of his head roughly ground his face into the dirt.

The horror of the realization that the Colds had been hunting for women or betas that could be easily captured stuck with him, and all he wanted was to go back home. He buried himself under a fur.

"You should stay here! You're not strong enough to go to the combat zone!"

"I am! I can fight like any other warrior you have trained in the past, why won't you let me go fight?!" He pleaded with his father not understanding. "You told me I was good enough to keep up with a squad."

"This isn't about whether or not you can fight! I know you can, but the answer is still no! I will not allow my son to risk his life just so he can prove himself at something that doesn't matter!"

"It matters to me!" Tears gathered in his eyes. All he ever wanted was to be a strong fighter like his father and brother. "Why can't you understand that!? I don't want to stay planetside and become nothing but a breeder raising cubs. I want to fight!" There was nothing for him on the planet, why didn't his father understand that. No one was even interested in courting him aside from using him to have cubs. Why couldn't anyone understand that wasn't what he wanted? He wasn't even having heats yet!

"Kakarot!" The beta actually shrank back from his father afraid that for the first time the man would actually strike him. His father loomed over him with fury burning in his eyes. "You're staying here! End of discussion!" He glared up at the man and stubbornly wiped his tears away, only for new ones to take their place.

"I won't! I want to fight and you can't stop me!" he screamed at his father before turning and fleeing the house.

Shouts from long ago played in his head from someone he thought didn't believed in him, but only ever tried to protect him even if it was from himself. He tried to curl up more to escape the words. He sobbed over the last time he saw his father before he managed to get a solo mission close to the combat zone. He was wrong, so very wrong and stupid. Why didn't he just listen to him? He would give anything to tell his father he was sorry, that he was right all along.

"Kakarot."

He let out a gasp as his eyes snapped open.

His name, someone said his name! His eyes found similar dark orbs and someone was leaning over him. The beta blinked. This wasn't his other self. He blinked again.

"AHHHH!" His fist smashed into the stranger's face. An enraged snarl of pain made the blood rush from his face.

++KV++

Vegeta growled as he checked his nose for blood. 'Tarro that hurt! Kakarot has one hell of a left hook, damn.' Soft whimpers drew his attention back to Kakarot. The beta had scrambled back against the back side of the nest and was cowering with his arms covering his head. Toa was watching both of them alertly, but he wasn't hostile.

"Please, don't hurt me, please. I'm sorry. Just leave me alone." The voice was soft and filled with fear.

"Hey, its ok." Vegeta tried to calm the terrified beta down. "Kakarot, I'm not going to hurt you."

"How…How do you…." The beta whimpered trembling. It was a trick! They couldn't know his name!

"It's your name, isn't it? Kakarot?" Vegeta tried again. Slowly the arms lowered and revealed tear filled, confused eyes.

"You said my name?" He was so confused. "Why are you here? No one is supposed to come here!" Hands grabbed at the thick black hair and his eyes clenched shut. Vegeta seeing he needed to calm his mate down so he could breathe, did the only thing he knew. Gently he wrapped his arms around the little beta and pulled him against his chest and purred. He held the beta firmly as he shrieked and tried to get loose.

"Shh…Its alright, Kakarot. I promise I won't hurt you. I'm here to help. You need to breathe, Kakarot. Its ok." The alpha nuzzled the back of the beta's neck like a parent would a cub. He hoped it would help.

"Who are you? How are you here?" Kakarot finally asked. He was still shaking and Vegeta could feel how scared the beta still was.

"My name's Vegeta. I…well he brought me here." The prince said nodding towards Toa.

"V…Vegeta?" he winced pressing a hand to his forehead, not understanding why it sounded familiar. "I don't…Wait, you can see him?"

"He asked me to help. I've been calling him Toa." Vegeta said keeping his voice even as he kept purring.

"You smell nice…like home…" Kakarot sounded out of it but he was curling into Vegeta's hold. "He keeps the bad things away. He likes your smell too." Vegeta tensed a moment when Toa settled in the nest and leaned against his back but relaxed realizing Toa was reacting to what Kakarot was thinking or feeling.

"I know this might be hard, but can you tell me how you got here?" The prince needed to know more of what happened if he was going to help. And he wanted to know just how they caught Bardock's son and how the beta got a solo assignment.

"Here?" The small beta went ridged in Vegeta's arms. "I…I was…I was…" The faint tremors in the beta's limbs turned into violent shaking. "I ran….there were trees, too many trees. Or walls? Walls that changed. He was there. Bad One. No light, I couldn't move." Kakarot's breathing quickened as he whimpered and gripped at his hair again. "Cold one's game. He lied! No exit, no way out! They kept hurting me! I wanted it to stop! Too many screams, too much blood!" His eyes were clenched shut by this point and Vegeta could feel the beta about to hyperventilate.

"Shhh. It's ok. Calm down for me alright. I'm going to protect you as best I can." Vegeta crooned in his ear feeling his heart break a little more for the beta.

"Please…I want to go home. Please." Kakarot sobbed as he cried. It was a pitiful plea, sounding more like a broken child than the adult Kakarot was. Vegeta could understand though, after fifteen years of this Hell anyone would be entitled to make that childish plea.

"You're going to go home soon, Kakarot. There's probably a team on the way now."

"No, there isn't." The little beta sniffed. "No one ever comes. Just people who hurt me."

"They're coming this time." Vegeta soothed understanding why Kakarot didn't believe him. "I was captured too. But I have something to help them find us. There's a chip behind my ear, Kakarot. It tells them where I am and that I need help. I swear I won't leave here without you. Both of us are going home. Your cubs too."

"R-really?" That one word was so full of hope that it had the prince's chest clenching, and the whimper and hands clutching his shoulder from behind him only added to the feeling. "Som-someone will come? We can leave?"

"Yes, all of us. We just have to wait until the team gets here." Vegeta softly said as he ran a hand through wild spikes. "Can you do that? I'll be with you and protect you as much as I can, Kakarot. I promise."

"Hmmmm…think…so." The alpha moved to look at the smaller saiyan, and he saw those expressive eyes blinking slowly. His body was steadily leaning more on Vegeta's as a yawn came from Kakarot. "You'll…be…here?"

"Kakarot." The larger male brought a hand up to cup the side of the beta's face as he shifted to look in his eyes. It was obvious that the younger saiyan was loosing the battle with sleep once more. Vegeta needed to ask him more questions and he wasn't sure it was good thing if the beta went back to sleep. "Stay awake, Kakarot. Come on, don't fall asleep on me yet."

"Don't leave me….Geta." His words were breathy and soft and he blinked a couple more times. His lithe body slumped half on Vegeta and half in the nest. His breathing became deep and even as he finally fell asleep once more.

The prince watched as Kakarot buried his face in his bare chest. A content sigh came from the smaller form, and Vegeta felt his lips twitching upward at the innocent action. He slowly moved him so that the beta was laying in the nest again. He ran another hand through the soft hair as Vegeta looked over him once more.

"Alpha." Toa's voice had him looking over his shoulder. The feral side of his mate was rubbing his face against the alpha's shoulder as he purred looking remarkably calmer than when he first appeared in here. "Alpha helped. Bad Flashes gone. Good Alpha."

Sure enough, Vegeta could hear the wind dying down outside of the house. Taking that and Toa's calm attitude, the prince moved so that he was sitting between the two in the nest. Now he could look at Toa while still lightly scratching the other's scalp. Kakarot had shifted to curl against his hip and was sleeping peacefully. Even unconscious, the beta was desperately soaking in the positive touch.

He shook his head as he tried to process what he had learned. He had been captured by his race's enemy, had mated his teacher's beta son that had been missing and believed dead for fifteen years, discovered he had two stepcubs, and now knows that his new mate is fragmented into two different personalities.

Vegeta ran his free hand over his face at everything. He looked over at the awake personality who was watching him in confusion.

"Toa, how are there two of you?" The prince finally asked. He wanted answers, and he needed to know how to help his mate once they get out of here. Knowing what happened might give him some idea on how to recombine the two.

"We…" Toa frowned with his brow furrowed. "Hurt, scared. All time. I come. Protect us from Bad Flashes. From Bad One, Cold One and Others. Not Me…not strong enough. Try make cubs but no Heat. No cubs. Cold One make play bad game. Lied. No hope." Toa shivered. "Took Kome away. More Heats…faster Heat, no cubs. Not Me hurt more. Sleep longer, longer. After Seba, not wake up. Not awake long, but awake longer now. Alpha here now. Alpha protect us."

Vegeta hummed in thought. From what he could understand, Kakarot wasn't strong enough to deal with everything mentally so Toa was created to handle everything that was happening to him. Looks like it was for short periods of time, but now Kakarot has gone dormant all the time. What was this game they mentioned? Cold One…that had to be Frieza. Who was Bad One? Kome and Seba, those were Saiyan names. What had Toa said earlier, 'Played with Seba'? Were those the cubs' names?

"Kome and Seba, they're your cubs right?" Toa purred and settled in the nest.

"Kome bigger, first cub." He said with a soft look in his eyes. "Seba littler. You play." The feral half yawned and rubbed against Vegeta again breathing deep his scent. "Alpha good. Alpha help us. Alpha Good smell. We like Alpha."

Vegeta wasn't sure what to make of that last comment. He wondered if Toa knew about their bond and understood what it was. Still Toa said they liked him so that was something positive in this situation.

"Toa-"

"No more talk, head hurt." The beta growled pressing his head against Vegeta's leg as he lay beside the alpha. "Tired."

Vegeta was left to concede the beta's point. Toa had spoken more than all their other interactions put together.

+++VK+++

Turles let the heavy metal door slam behind him as he entered his cabin wiping his bloody hands on an increasingly blood stained towel and sank into his console chair.

Hands mostly clean he dropped the rag on the desk and steepled his fingers in thought. A lot had happened recently that he'd been unaware of and it bothered him. His network was either going soft or was no longer as effective if he was forced to become hands on in acquiring information. It wasn't often the alpha had to resort to such…..crude…methods, but this was becoming personal. He had worked hard to build his reputation. To not be as feared as he was and not connected to the strength of the saiyan army was suicide. His enemies and those who crossed him didn't die, they vanished, no bodies, no witnesses, nothing to indicate they even existed other than a name or memory belonging to those that missed them in the first place.

'What the hell is that demon up to?'

A glance at his clock told him his little brother would be home at this hour. It had only been five days, but there was no point in delaying his call when he had the information he needed….and maybe more. A few clicks later and his transmission was sending while he absently cleaned his knife.

"Turles….is that blood?!" Bardock's voice pierced his thoughts. He flashed his little brother a feral grin.

"Is little brother worried?" He teased not being able to resist giving Bardock a hard time. "Relax, none of its mine."

"I don't even want to know." The pale saiyan muttered as he rested his head in his hands for a moment. He glanced at his older brother with one eye peering through his fingers. "So what's going on? You called two days early."

"Well, there's some good new, bad news, and some very interesting details you might want to know." Turles turned serious as he set his blade down. It needed something other than a wipe down to get it completely clean anyway.

"Ok, what are we looking at?" The green clad saiyan put his hands down as he snapped into professional mode.

"Frieza is located on planet Frieza 228, and if I'm right that means he and Vegeta are on the same planet from the rumors going around which counts as the bad news." He just decided to go ahead and put that out there. Neither one of them liked to beat around the bush.

"Damn it!" Bardock slammed a hand down on his chair, and a cracking sound came over the speakers. He let out a string of curses that the older man wasn't sure if they were from the news or whatever it was Bardock just broke. Looks like his little brother still had temper issues. He picked up the blade as he waited for the other to calm down enough to continue the discussion. "Oh course that bastard would be on the one world we don't need him on. Why there, though? Frieza's been off grid for month's."

"That brings us to the interesting facts. For starters Vegeta killed some of the Ginyu Force when they captured him. Recoome and Gul…something with a G, anyways, that I've been able to confirm." The dark saiyan kept his eyes on the knife as he worked on a spot he missed earlier. Bardock stared at him in shock.

"There weren't any bodies, trust me we searched enough of them. You're sure?"

"Considering the sources I used…very." Turles said sitting his curved blade on the console. "Word is they took the Ginyu's bodies to try covering it up. Mess with the army's moral by making you sweat not knowing where they are. Not a bad plan, I have to admit. Anyways, apparently Frieza 228 is some kind of research station. No one really knows what exactly happens there but what I dug up is that it focuses on creating better soldiers. My….source…was rather dry on that topic. It wasn't just him either. No one leaves that rock and talks. The guards that don't die get shuttled around to Frieza's personal ship, drafted to mines or other backwater worlds where they disappear. My gut is telling me nothing good happens on that planet, Bar. Frieza wouldn't have spent half the effort at keeping this quiet unless he wanted whatever is going on down there to be a secret."

"You said you had good news? Cause right now I could really use some." Bardock watched his brother shift and sit facing him.

"There's a series of standing orders among Frieza's army. One of which is that if by some miracle any Saiyan is captured they are to be taken to Frieza 228. It's been in place for years, Bardock, predating Kakarot's disappearance." Hope swelled in the younger alpha's eyes, and the Turles felt good about putting that there.

"You mean…"

"It means if they captured him, they took Kakarot there." Turles growled. "From the sounds of this place prisoners don't last very long. It's been 15 years, there is every possibility he's been moved somewhere else or…." He shook his head. "I'm saying you might can find out what happened to him if he was there to begin with."

"Thank you, Turles." Bardock's tone was wavering slightly, but the other saiyan paid it no mind. "I need to speak to the king. I'll let you know once we've decided on a plan. I…appreciate your help, brother."

"Anytime," Turles said with a small smile.