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Chapter 9: Before I Forget

"I really don't think that you've been on this planet before, Vegeta," Chester exclaimed to the boy walking in front of him as he pushed a hanging branch out of his path. Vegeta shrugged and stepped over a fallen trunk, the natural effect of an older forest.

"I'm just telling you what I saw, I don't know where it came from but it felt as though I've been on this planet before," he replied monotonously. Turning back to the blonde, he noticed Chester's head bandage now held a bigger patch of darkened blood than the last time he looked. Chester had knocked his head on a piece of machinery in the ship, most likely giving him a concussion but for now he only complained that his head was throbbing. With a sigh, Vegeta turned back to the foliage ahead of him.

While the duo was crunching through the woods, Vegeta was alert. He checked the trees they were to pass for anything; any sound he heard, he would crank his head to see what was causing it. Chester called him paranoid, but Vegeta saw him as reckless for not being aware of his surroundings. It's an alien planet, absolutely anything could happen.

It wasn't before long when Vegeta noticed metal - or concrete - poking through the trees. The plants themselves had become sparse as Chester and Vegeta continued, and the weather had become chilly with each step. Chester had voiced this a few minutes ago, Vegeta mentally noticing it around the same time. Maybe whatever is up there is resonating the coldness, Vegeta thought. He slowed as they neared a concrete wall, stretching at least 7 meters into the air. The trees had vanished completely by this point, leaving the duo standing in a desolate area about 15 meters from the structure. It was here the duo decided to stop.

"Well, this is a problem," Chester said, gazing at the curve inwards the wall followed in the distance, trapping whatever was inside from the forest behind them. No noise was admitted over the wall, causing the duo to think nothing was on the other side. No gatehouses were visible, nor walking space on the top, only the grey sight blocking off the intense sunlight.

Vegeta started to contemplate whether they should even attempt to get over it, or turn back to the pods and find Earth. The escape was over, but Frieza may still try to track them down in the openness of space. Vegeta voiced this to Chester, causing the blonde to respond, "We have nowhere else to go. Like you said, he could be tracking us, hell, those pods may have a transmitter in them."

"So we have to hope something to help is on the other side." We're on our last rope. With this new action plan in mind, the pair stared at their new obstacle: the wall.

"Maybe there's a door or guard house down one of these ways," Chester pointed left and right down the concrete.

Vegeta shrugged his shoulders in acceptance. "It's worth a try." They chose to follow with the wall on their left, still at their distance, only slightly in the structure's shadow.

The silent walk in the cold caused Vegeta to question Frieza's intentions. Why had he waited so long to find him? What would have been the final result to himself and Chester if they hadn't escaped? Vegeta shook off these 'what if' questions when a snap to their right caught his attention. Vegeta and Chester snapped their heads to the sound, scanning the area and stopped their progress. "What was that?" Chester whispered, skimming the jungle area in the distance.

Vegeta didn't answer, not knowing the answer, and motioned for Chester to continue walking. He hoped something wasn't following them, not in the mood for another fight today. Chester, who was in step with Vegeta, became more paranoid of their surroundings and looked over his shoulder every few minutes, tension clearly visible on his form.

The terrain hadn't changed during their journey, the same backdrop of dead ground and the dark wall filled Vegeta's vision. The sun had disappeared behind grey clouds, completing the atmosphere of dreariness. An indent in the wall became visible and they subconsciously sped up their pace to see if it was the door or entranceway they were looking for.

A high-pitched screech emitted from the forest to the side, followed by a small four-legged creature. Chester swore loudly and began to sprint away from the attacking being. Vegeta followed him in fear as well, but turned back to see the creature had caught up to them easily and was only a few cars length away. Vegeta quickly formed an energy ball of blue in his hand and shot it at the grey creature, but not before taking a good look at the thing. Its eyes, two in total, were ebony black and glassy, gazing at the duo with hunger and malice, its mouth hanging open with razor teeth jutting out as if to bite them. It moved on all four legs, but looked as though it could walk on its hind legs alone. Little sores and gouges littered its sickly gangrene skin, making it look infected, or that there could be something else around to attack it.

The being was hit on its neck from Vegeta's attack, causing it to choke and sputter, and halted its progress. It fell forward with a dark substance oozing from the wound, but another creature like it dove out from a nearby dead bush. Vegeta dodged it and sprinted to catch up to Chester who was almost at the gateway.

A crowd of the creatures gathered at the forest line and bolted towards their newfound prey. Vegeta turned and shot at the ones closing in on them, but a few rose from the injuries and resumed attacking. Chester ran to the cement gate, which almost blended into the wall, and banged, pushed and yelled to get it open, but it didn't budge. Vegeta faced the aliens who had formed a semi-ring around them. He glared at each of them, counting 17 in total. He felt a small strand of panic flow through him at the thought of an all-out attack, but stood his ground, bringing energy balls up in a fighting stance to threaten them.

A brave creature to his right launched itself at Vegeta who quickly reacted with a kick to the being's neck and a shot to follow, making it cry out in protest and die. Another one took this opportunity to attack to his left and Vegeta was barely fast enough to not be plowed by it.

Chester ceased his banging as the door wouldn't move, and turned to see Vegeta with the small aliens jumping at him. Vegeta was handling them okay, but when a couple from Vegeta's batch noticed Chester pressed against the wall, they abandoned the crowded prey to attack Chester.

The blonde dodged the creature's lunge and followed Vegeta's example by punching its face. Its head whipped back a bit, but turned to Chester with a grin and lunged at him again. The other jumped behind him and held his arms from behind, so he resorted it kicking each and struggling from it's surprisingly strong grip.

He fought the two, earning himself minor scratches, but once an alien hit his tender wound he fell to the ground in an instant in pain. Rolling over at the sound of a snap, Chester realized Vegeta had grabbed the alien's neck and broke it before it attacked again. The second one was nowhere to be found. Vegeta threw the limp body to a pile where the other dead ones lay in a bloody and deformed mess.

Vegeta gazed at Chester, still on the ground, and the latter felt a chill crawl up his spine when he saw a bloodthirsty, empty gaze in the black eyes. Vegeta had received scratches as well form the clawed hands, and his lip wound had been reopened, blood trickling down his face. Vegeta silently looked at the gateway and banged his fist on it.

A crack of the rusted hinges was heard as the door moved a few feet open, enough for the duo to squeeze through. Vegeta stepped over Chester and walked through the opening, only to be met by a cluster of men with guns pointing at him.

Chester jumped to his feet and squeezed through passed Vegeta only to freeze his pace and widen his eyes at the small army. They yelled at the duo to stay where they were, speaking in a language very close to German. Vegeta soullessly glared at each of them, finally resting his gaze on the leader, he supposed, or the one who had shouted at them. He took a slow step forward and the men clutched their weapons closely, aiming at Vegeta's chest. Chester only stared as his friend walked directly in front of the gun, lifted his hand and bent the barrel sideways. The men gasped and stumbled aside from the leader, who stared at his gun in horror. Blinking a few times, the emotion rushed back to Vegeta's face and he stated, "We're not here to hurt you. We just need to get home."

The men, who wore long military-like jackets and had a slight orange discolouration to their skins, looked from Chester to Vegeta in front of their captain. A man behind the captain lowly muttered something to him, which Vegeta could not pick up fast enough. The captain nodded to him and asked the dark-haired boy in plain English, "You're a Saiyan, aren't you?"

Vegeta, still not knowing if his new status was good or bad, replied with a no. After a few seconds of staring Vegeta down and with a signal to his men, all of the guns were lowered and Chester let out a sigh of relief.

A man moved behind Chester to close the huge door but gasped as he witnessed the carcass pile Vegeta has made outside the door. "You killed a whole pack of Jambeson?!" he exclaimed to Chester in a slight German accent.

Vegeta turned to him and answered, "Those things tried to kill us. It was only self defence." The captain shook his head in disbelief and motioned for the man to close the concrete door, which he did with the same amount of ease Vegeta had opening it.

"That makes me feel so much better," Chester mumbled sarcastically and stepped beside Vegeta and the captain, who was a head taller than the duo.

The group of men moved back to their guard stations around the rocky pathway while a few fell in step behind Vegeta, Chester and their captain while they began walking away from the walk. The duo glanced around to see mainly concrete foundations and ground floors to be the only things left of buildings, but even those were barely standing. The town held a gloomy vibe, like it was the wreckage of a war zone. The men held their weapons close to their sides as if there was still something left to attack, but all remained quiet. Faces poked out of the windows at the sound of footsteps passing and stared at the two alien figures beside their commander. Finally, Chester questioned, "What happened here? It looks like you were attacked."

The captain sighed and looked around his desolate town. "We were once the travel capital of the universe," he began with his own German accent strong, his voice solemn, "until some people from our race had deified and pissed off Frieza. He attacked the planet, set loose some of his more primal creatures on the heated side of the planet which forced us to build and live here in the cold side (since we don't rotate). We had to build walls once the Jambeson, those creatures you killed, got out of control, and lost most of our inhabitants to safer planets. Since then, this pile of rubble is all we have left."

Vegeta and Chester glanced at each other from the horror story told, both afraid that Earth may suffer from their disappearance. Vegeta turned to the commander and asked, "But there has to be some sort of peacekeeping in the universe though, why haven't-"

The captains bold laugh caused Vegeta to pause and wait for an explanation. "Peacekeeping? You're new to space travel, for sure.."He spun on them with a grave expression, causing the duo to halt suddenly. "Frieza is the leader of the universe. Everything happens under his rule, where he allows it, when he allows it. No one has been able to step up to his strength and power, and for that we must all suffer."

He studied the boys for a few moments, then asked, "You said you were going home, right? Leave quickly, don't fall into Frieza's radar, especially you," he said pointing to Vegeta, "and keep your unknown planet safe. Do you need supplies?"

Chester lightly touched his head. "Maybe a new bandage," he said as he pulled a few bloodstained fingers away.

Vegeta gazed over the rubble once last time, seeing so much crumbling under the debris. He pictured the great cities of Earth suffering the same fate, sirens blaring, the yells of injured innocents, and the world's natural wonders crushed to nothing. He crossed his arms after a chill worked up his spine to warm himself, from the shiver and lack of sunlight presented. Vegeta raised an eyebrow at Chester's laid back request, and cut in defiantly, "I don't think we're going home quite so soon. Frieza's system needs to be broken, and I don't want my planet, or any more, to end up like this."

Laughter was emitted from the gang of soldiers around him. Vegeta looked around questioning their defeated state. "Aren't all of you against him? I'm sure there are many others out there that want to bring him down too. If enough people rebel then he could be brought down."

"Don't play hero, boy. You haven't seen anything yet, and you will get crushed out there. Go home," the captain ordered. Vegeta felt a sense of deja vu at the order, and remembered when upon meeting him, he asked Chester to do the same thing, but Chester disobeyed and was by his side in this nightmare. Would the same or worse fate happen to them?

The captain and Vegeta began a stare down, with Chester glancing between the two. He saw Vegeta was planning with or without this crew's help to take down his hunter. Chester swiftly sliced the tension, "Well Veg, lets go find some food and rest for a bit." He turned to the captain, "Which way did you say the supplies were?"

The commander pointed to a storey of a building to their left. Chester muttered a thank you and dragged Vegeta by his arm to the building.

"Chester..." Vegeta growled warningly.

"Hold on, we'll talk in a bit."

The guard by the supply house watched the duo approach, and with an approval by the captain he stepped aside to let them in. The captain watched the pair disappear into the dark building, then muttered to his right hand man, "The one boy is definitely a Saiyan, he may be working under Frieza and trying to rat out everyone against him. Do not let them leave the planet alive."

--

At once the smell of cardboard and metal filled their senses. There was a long, dimly lit hallway with doors on either side, and cracks in the almost broken walls. The duo cautiously walked, stepping over the few stones or bricks that littered the floor. The necessities were labelled by room, which Vegeta had deciphered for the both of them, and son they reached the food supply room. Chester immediately began opening boxes while Vegeta stood in the doorway and looked down the hall. They were near the end, and the only other person in the facility was the guard on the front door. Chester muttered about there being no fruit or fresh food in the boxes, but only cans or jugs of preserved food.

"Well don't expect anything fresh here, there's no light to grow anything," Vegeta replied to him once he entered the room. There was only one window, long and near the ceiling, giving the room barely any light but enough to get by. Dust settled on some boxes, but with their entrance some had been stirred up into the air, visible in the rays of light shining through. He watched Chester scan to find something edible since they had not eaten in over 16 hours, maybe even a day. At last he pulled out a few bags that resembled potato chips and the two hungrily tore the bags open. They sat on the floor after brushing off some dirt and dust, munching away until Chester spoke up, "What do you plan on doing?"

Vegeta looked at him with confusing in his eyes. "What do you mean? Well, I plan on eating these things..."

"No, no," Chester shook his head, "When the captain dude declined your offer, I knew you were plotting some scheme that will get us deeply involved in something that could easily kill us. So, I'd rather know your intentions now so I don't fuck them up and make it worse."

Vegeta cranked his head backwards to listen for any movement, then once he assumed it was safe, began telling Chester his plot.

--

The captain had ordered men to surround the building, blocking off any escape that the duo could make. They moved stealthily, barely making a noise on the rocky terrain. Once he had been informed that everyone was in their positions, the commander moved into the building from the main entrance, not caring if Vegeta and Chester heard him approach. He started to hear raised voices, and slowed his pace in order to listen into the teenagers' plans.

--

"You are insane, you know that? Who says that anyone would help you, let alone be friendly enough not to kill you on sight? You heard that guy, the universe is fucking dangerous!" Chester furiously whispered, leaning forward to emphasize his argument.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Yeah, go home! Forget all this!"

"That will do nothing! You know as much as I do, and Frieza doesn't seem like the type of guy to let an escape go unnoticed. He will hunt me down, probably you too for the hell of it, and will stop at nothing to do so. He was searching for me for a reason, and until we know what it is, home isn't safe. It will cause more harm than good for our planet," Vegeta concluded on the same noise level as Chester, then thought to himself, If the planet is still there. Vegeta sighed. "I know this is putting us both on edge, but complaining about it doesn't help. We can't be at odds now when working together is key to our survival."

Chester visibly calmed down with a release of his breath, but was still slightly agitated. "So adding to my original question, how do you plan on achieving this victory over the universe's highest power imaginable?" he asked calmly, defeat evident in his voice from their spat.

"Well, obviously not staying here. It's a desolate waste planet. We need more information before jumping into anything," Vegeta paused at the sound of approaching footsteps, the same heaviness he had heard from the captain's steps. "We may have overstayed our welcome here anyways. Grab as much as you can, find a sack or something, and I'll try to find a map or guidance system." Chester nodded at the plan for the time being and began his rummaging once again. He quickly found a bag in the back of the dark room and packed anything that looked edible into it. Vegeta looked out the hallway to see no one down their section yet, but knew the captain was right around the corner. He quickly spotted a 'records' room across the hall, and sprinted across to the room with the door hanging on its hinges. This was conveniently placed, he thought while flipping through files to find anything that caught his eye, Ah well, easier for us.

Seeing an entire folder labelled 'Mapping', he grabbed it from the pile and rushed back to the food room where Chester had packed two bags to their capacity. He threw one to Vegeta who strapped it around his form, shoving the file of maps into the pouch, Chester copying the movement with his own bag. They exited the room and passed piles of debris, heading towards the front door and only exit (that they knew of). Passing an area of weapons, Vegeta whispered to Chester, "Find something in there, you may need it but keep it out of sight for now. I'll stall."

Chester left for the room while Vegeta turned another corner, leading to the main hallway, and almost ran into the captain. "Oh sorry, didn't see you there," Vegeta said, trying to buy his friend some time. "So how's the, um, guarding going?"

The captain wrinkled his forehead at the question, but decided to ask one of his own, "Do you plan on staying to rest for a while? This place is probably not the best to stay in, we have other rooms set up if you like." He looked up to see Chester circling the corner, startled to see the captain so close to them.

"No, that's alright," Vegeta answered, his eyes turned to Chester to see if he had found what he was looking for alright. A small smile formed on the blonde's lips, causing Vegeta to turn back to the captain and reply, "We're actually leaving now, but thanks for the hospitality." He moved to walk around the captain and leave, but his path was blocked. "You're in our way, could you step to the side?" Vegeta asked politely.

The captain, who had misunderstood Chester's smirk to something more devious, replied with a stern, "No."

Vegeta, expecting this kind of hostility to show eventually, calmly said, "Okay," and swiftly slammed his fist into the captain's face. The commander cried in pain and stepped back, which Vegeta took as an opportunity to skim around the man, Chester following the suit. "Never mind about hiding whatever you got, you may need it," he said gruffly the blonde, speeding up to almost a jog to the entrance.

"Ah don't worry, it's easily accessible," Chester replied, patting the blade's hilt that was slightly poking out of his pouch. Vegeta gave a small smirk and nodded in approval at his choice in weapon.

The doorway guard was outside, along with a few others, aiming their weapons to Vegeta and Chester once they exited into the more lightly lit area. Vegeta lit up an energy ball in his hand menacingly while Chester pulled out the blade, almost like a small samurai sword, and the duo let their weapons hang at their sides. "We're leaving and don't want to cause any trouble," Vegeta stated loudly, trying his best to intimidate the men which was pretty simple for the dark look in his eyes.

The men obeyed their captain's previous orders and started up their weapons, for they were more advanced than the weapons the duo was used to on Earth. Vegeta fired at the man closest to him, Chester slashed at the one closest to himself, and both knocked the guns out of their hands. The remaining men quickly fired, which Vegeta had to dodge and fire at a few to save Chester from his slower reflexes. Chester continued to pull karate moves with the blade, and ended up slashing at a few of their arms so they wouldn'tbe able to pick the weapon back up. Neither had the courage to kill something that resembled at human, though they seemed very willing to take down Vegeta and Chester.

A few had run to get back-up, even though they knew the blonde could be taken down, his co-attacker was too much for all of them to handle. Vegeta had resorted to rendering people unconscious, all slashed and burned from the duo's attacks. Vegeta and Chester decided to run back to the large gate, but had to hide behind a large chunk of rubble when the guards from the gatehouses were informed of the attack and ran in their direction. Peeking around to see the security, Chester groaned when he saw the many, many locks located on the gate, "We can't get out of here without their help or a lot of time, neither that we have," he whispered to Vegeta and fell back into their hideout. "Now's your time to learn to fly, Vegeta."

"Why don't you learn how to fly, why me?" Vegeta muttered, and knowing it was their only option at the moment he tried to focus on levitating. He had no idea what to do, but had a suspicion that his energy had something to do with the ability to fly. When he pulled the energy to the core of his body, he felt more grounded than in the air, so instead he pushed it underneath his feet and instantly felt a lighter sensation.

Opening his eyes, he realized he was 2 feet off the ground, hovering behind the building. With encouragement from Chester, Vegeta slowly moved from side to side, up and down a fe with a bit of focus. "Okay, I'm going to help you this once, so get on my back Ches," he said lowering to the ground. Chester quickly hopped on, wanting to leave the enclosed area quickly. Vegeta tried to levitate again, but with the extra weight it took much more concentration than the first attempt. He shot into the air, just enough height to fly straight over the wall. Wavering slightly, Vegeta slowly inched out into the open. Chester gripped his shoulders as he picked up a bit more speed, and finally the two emerged over the wall. Vegeta sighed as he began lowering, the energy he used to float diminishing greatly. "Wait, we can get to the pods so much faster if you fly us!" Chester exclaimed as he felt his friend letting gravity take over.

Vegeta glared at him over his shoulder, but realized it would take more energy to walk the distance that had taken them at least half an hour before. So he pulled any remainding energy he had left out of his system and glided across the newly forming treetops. The jungle below intensified, as well as the heat in the air and Chester's grip on his throat. Vegeta started to gag as Chester's hand slipped and tightened around his trachea causing him to lose altitude very quickly. Chester reacted to the sudden drop by a scream and gripping Vegeta's body with his arms and legs until the two crash landed through the trees.

Vegeta lay on the ground coughing slightly as he breathed deeply, feeling like he was about to pass out from the lack of energy. Chester moaned as he had landed a few feet away on his back, rubbing the injured area as he stood. Chester walked over to Vegeta and looked over his fallen friend. "Well, you're not bleeding, not as much as I am at least," he said and checked his head.

"Oh, it's stopped now, joy," he continued, smiling. He raised an eyebrow at Vegeta's deep breathing. "So you ready to go yet?"

The dark haired boy made no attempt to move, but closed his eyes and concentrated stopping the burning sensation in his lungs. After a few moments, he muttered, "We're only a few... well we're close. You," he pointed to Chester which startled the blonde from the sudden movement, "are going to carry me now."

Chester only scoffed at the speech. "If you have enough energy to speak AND raise your arm, you are walking." He proceeded to turn and walk into the forest, leaving Vegeta to groan and slowly push himself off the ground. The two pushed through the forest until they reached the clearing with their ships, even though they were slightly over to the side. Both sighed in relief and plopped in front of the giant craters for a short rest. "Where to now?" Chester asked.

Vegeta pulled the electronic map out of his bag and turned it on, learning it worked like a GPS of the universe. Frieza's base was marked in red (no surprise there), and the planets/galaxies were all colour-coded based on their hostility levels and worth. "Well," Vegeta started, flipping through the statistics, "these have coordinates at least, and there's actually a highly advanced merchant planet nearby. It bound to be populated, but we need to form a plan. Can't go asking around for a rebellion group, it'd be too suspicious."

Chester nodded and stared at the ground for answers. "Oh! I have an AMAZING idea! We go home, and forget this ever happened," he exclaimed, then rolled his eyes at Vegeta's lack of humor.

Vegeta ignored his comment and stayed silent, thinking of a plot of his own. "We could at least go to the place to see if it's visibly against Frieza," Vegeta stated.

"Yeah, if not, well... think of something there," Chester concluded. Both nodded in agreement and started to stand. "Wait!" Chester said, then ran down to his ship. Vegeta raised a questioning eyebrow until Chester ran back up the slope with the communicator in his hands. "Does that thing have instructions on these? It was very lucky that we both ended up here, but what if that doesn't happen next time?"

"I'm going to punch the coordinates into your ship, Ches, don't worry," Vegeta reassured. "And I have no idea what that is, maybe we can find out at Barcheck... The merchant planet," he continued as Chester questioned what 'Barcheck' was.

Vegeta ran down to Chester's ship with blonde and typed the numerical symbols into his keyboard, and the ship started up almost instantly. Chester hopped into the vessel and waved at Vegeta as the door closed automatically. "See you in a bit," the Saiyan responded, and ran up the crater and down the down to his own ship. He punched in the same numbers and within seconds the ship was in orbit behind Chester's. Who would've thought this space travel thing felt so natural to me, he thought and leaned back into the squishy seats, awaiting arrival at their new destination.