Chapter Seven

Stop touching it!"

Lithia was lying on the floor of what seemed to be Nappa's cell- the contents of the room were significantly larger that normal- gazing up at three saiyan faces through a haze of scarlet. The blood from her wound was flowing freely over her face, running into her eyes and hair. It throbbed angrily with more pain than she was willing to admit.

"Where the hell is that ointment?" she heard Vegeta shouting. Though she could not see him, she could feel the prince grasping tightly onto her wrist. He had been holding her so since he'd carried her out of Freiza's chamber, murmuring frantically to her every so often.

She'd been rushed into Nappa's cell, where all three saiyans soon crowded round with towels, cloths and solutions of all kinds, desperately trying to stem the bleeding.

"You used all the ointment," Nappa responded, dabbing Lithia's face with what felt like a towel. "Relax. It won't bleed forever."

"Well what about the scarring, you moron?" the prince snapped back. "A towel will not stop that!"

"I don't think the ointment would either, Vegeta," Raditz chipped in. His voice sounded concerned, and Lithia knew why.

This was meant to scar. This was not an injury inflicted to cause pain or damage. If Freiza had wanted to hurt her, he would have done something much worse, and this she knew too well. The monster had deliberately disfigured her. He'd seen the affinity between her and her prince and, feeling clearly threatened, had sought to destroy it by robbing her of her greatest asset: her beauty. It was sneaky, it was cold, it was cruel…it was Frieza. Yet there was a lingering irony to his methods that chilled her.

"He knew," she whispered aloud, sitting up slowly and turning to look at Vegeta. "He knew!" she repeated. "Vegeta, he knew!"

"Knew what?" the prince replied. He was eyeing Lithia an expression of nothing less than horror. Yet for now, she did not care. Something stranger was afoot.

"Do you remember what you said to me the night before last?" she whispered, dropping her voice so low that her male companions had to crowd her to hear.

"I said many things," Vegeta hissed, also lowering his tone. "Which one?"

"When I was ranting about him," Lithia mused, "you told me to be careful or he'd scar my other cheek. Do you remember?"

"Yes," the prince responded. He was frowning slightly, and Lithia could see her suspicions were dawning on him. Nappa and Raditz, however, sat thoroughly oblivious.

"What's your point?" Raditz asked. "And why the fuck are we whispering?"

"My point," Lithia replied, picking up a towel, and patting her seeping wound, "is that it's rather a coincidence that he chose such a befitting punishment, isn't it? He knew what Vegeta had said! Somehow he knew! And if he heard that, then who knows what else he could have found out. He could be listening to us right now."

Nappa stared disbelievingly, shaking his head.

"No way," he muttered. "Why would he waste time and resources having someone monitoring us? It doesn't make sense."

"Oh but it does!" Vegeta said quietly. "You know he's paranoid about us rioting on him. He's always trying to be one step ahead. No, I think she's right. There was something Zarbon said…When I came out to look for you, he was waiting by my door. He told me Freiza wasn't too pleased with me man-handling his goods."

"I said that to you that same night," Lithia whispered. Her eyes widened, with some difficulty through the mask of congealing blood on her face. "He is spying on us! Vegeta, it all fits! What you said yesterday…about him not bothering us…he saw that as a challenge!"

"Are you saying this is my fault?" the prince snapped, jumping to his feet.

"No, I'm not," she replied, cursing herself for not being more diplomatic. "My point he's doing all this on purpose to get at us."

"To get at you two, you mean," Raditz corrected. "As far as I'm concerned, his problem is with you, not all of us."

"Shut up, Raditz," Nappa hissed, carefully monitoring Vegeta's expression. "We're comrades. We're in this together."

"Precisely," the prince affirmed. "An attack on one of us is an attack on us all. More so if it's on me."

"Excuse me - whose face did he mutilate?" Litha interrupted crossly. But it was dawning on her that her disfigurement was only a way for the lizard to get to Vegeta. He was playing on the prince's supposed like for her- though she was wondering whether this actually existed. She was nothing more than a tool or a pawn; a button on Vegeta's panel that Freiza knew just how to press.

She looked angrily to her partner, who still stood above them, his expression aloof despite the storm that was raging in his eyes.

"May I speak with Vegeta alone for a moment?" Lithia requested, turning to Nappa and Raditz, who looked as though he were going to object until the elder saiyan pulled him to his feet.

"We need to sort that cut out in a minute," Nappa said as he made to leave. "Make it quick."

The door hissed noisily as it opened to admit then, closing again with an oppressive thud that hung in the air for many moments after it's demise.

Lithia got to her feet awkwardly, ignoring the fresh pain that pulsated across her face, and anxiously walked over to where Vegeta was standing. His arms were folded, as usual, across his chest, and with his head lowered, gazing at the floor, it was impossible for her to read him.

The young woman opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed appropriate. So she settled for a tender touch on his arm, a gesture that he would normally have sneered at. Yet it seemed to placate him, if only a little.

"I feared this would happen," he muttered. " I knew the moment I started to give you attention, it would be used against me."

"Vegeta," Lithia began gently, "You can't hold back in your life because of people like him. How will you ever live?"

The prince shook his head in what she perceived to be exasperation.

"Lithia, you have the great disadvantage of not experiencing enough of our culture to be affected by it. Had you been old enough before the destruction to understand, you'd know what was expected of you."

"Vegeta, you're only older than me by one year!"

"It's enough to make the difference, clearly. Our people do not do affection, and for good reason! Reason such as what occurred tonight."

Lithia's heart sunk in her chest. She knew what this meant- she'd always worried he'd be too stubborn to fulfil their betrothal for fear of actually caring for her. That was his true weakness! Not the fact he may harbour affection for her, but his constant phobia of ever feeling anything except hatred, anger or perhaps covetousness.

"You seem to think," she said, "that our union would make us weaker. Yet there is strength in numbers Vegeta. We are two different beings with different strengths and vices, but together our strengths could compliment one another, make up for the other's weakness!"

"Speak for yourself!" Vegeta snapped. He lunged forward and began to march across the room. "I am not weak, Lithia! Furthermore, I will not let myself be weakened by a female!"

The prince paused before the door and glanced back. There was a brief flash of pain across his face; a hungry, longing interjection to his usual arrogance. In an instance, however, it was gone, and so was he.

Lithia's strength dispersed. Her body crumpled miserably and she fell to her knees with the smallest of crashes, lowering her marred face to the ground. She heard the door hiss open again, but she did not raise her head. It would not be him- only Nappa or Raditz come back to finish the job.

"Get up, kid," the eldest saiyan urged her. "It's nearly morning. Let's clean up that gash and get some sleep already."

"Did you see where he went?" she whispered, not wishing to look up. In spite of herself, she found she was crying. The salt of her hot, angry tears stung her open wound, reminding her of more pressing troubles. It seemed Vegeta wanted nothing more to do with her. That alone was bad, but coupled with a permanent disfigurement, the destruction of her only chance of winning him back, it was suddenly unbearable.

For a moment, she forgot her pride. For a moment, she abandoned her nature and her heritage and simply wept.

Nappa's immense and powerful arms scooped her off the ground, placing her on his bunk.

"Kid, if you were any other saiyan I would be forced to beat on you by now," he said. "As it's you, I can't. But I'll say this: don't let him see you in such a mess. It'll only confirm everything he's been worried about. Be strong. Show him the way and he'll come right back."

"No he won't!" she murmured, wiping her eyes with her fingers. "Look at me! I'm hideous! Freiza made sure of that."

"It's not so bad," Nappa shrugged, tilting his head on an angle. "It's a bit of a state now, but once it's healed it'll only be a neat little scar."

"Yeah, that runs across the entire left side of my face! What kind of Queen looks like that?"

"Scars are cool," the oversized saiyan shrugged again. "Why d'you think Vegeta has so many?"

Lithia did not know, nor did she care. She was tainted, damaged, and she knew her prince wouldn't have it. The lizard may as well have raped her, for he'd done an equal amount of damage. He'd devalued her, made her worthless. He'd ruined her life all over again.

Well, she was not going to stand for it anymore. The spying and shadowing them she could have lived with, but his dictating their every move? No, she certainly wasn't going to have it. He would pay.