Chapter 7

Deliberations

There was little time if not any when the Saiyan woke up the next morning to really get ready. His hair mussed up a bit from his sleep, he was on his feet the moment Officer Vanders was in the room. With the pants and boots already on, Jeremy shook his head, taking the old tattered blue shirt from the Saiyan and then passed him another. Vegeta looked at this new cloth quietly, wondering just why he was given this, but then his training took over and he slipped it on.

Vegeta could only ponder things as he was again put into the back of the cruiser and as the buildings passed, his black eyes took in the sight of the now towering buildings that passed wondrously before a cold, hardened gaze. He had become a master of disguise, able to mask his feelings as easily as he could his appearance if need be. The silence though was near unbearable, as he looked to the people walking down the crowded sidewalks. Some would stare his way, others would pay no attention, but the Saiyan soon found himself drifting to the times when buildings reached no higher than five stories, slaves and carts filled the dirt streets, and the city was not so crowded.

Jeremy looked back toward Vegeta through the rear view mirror, and then at a stoplight, would find him with a little bit of a ponderance of his own. "You're quiet back there. Perhaps the quietest transport I've ever had. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to strangle the person in back, but you're different, aren't you?"

Vegeta looked at Officer Vanders and shook his head. "I'm not that different. I just have a tendency of not saying much. I suppose the trial is to resume today?"

The officer looked back at the Saiyan as if wanting to say something, but the gaze in those black eyes cut off his words. So cold, so walled off, but perhaps just briefly those ebony eyes shown of a light fear, an unwitting of even to go, but there was no other place he could even go, not yet. He had been lucky his stay to recover was in a normal hospital as it was, but the warrior knew better than to press his luck. He didn't ask for anything, he didn't complain, he just simply allowed his path this once to take him where it would. This day it was to that courthouse, the same one that held his papers.

When they arrived, they were greeted by reporters, cameras, and it was then that the Saiyan's gaze turned vicious toward that of the reporters. With just that one gaze, they would find that the collared Saiyan was not one to hoard around. They backed off and the officer that thought he would have to fight off the crowd, looked back toward Vegeta, but though the gaze was given, there had been no actual threat. The fact that they backed off made it clear that this warrior was not usual. No one could back off seasoned reporters like he could and all done without a single word uttered. Perhaps it was the cold stare, or maybe the fact that he made eye contact instead of trying to hide himself. Then as that gaze fixed to the top of the white courthouse, he would come to see the elegance of it's architecture.

This was not the same place he was before, no, this place was huge, with such grandeur, that the Saiyan looked at it once and noted what it stated. It was the Supreme Court. The white stone was detailed with it's ornate edifice led into a room that opened up wide. Seven Justices were sitting up at the front, and they each took in the sight of the cop leading the collared captive to the Defense. Officer Vanders, though stopped him short and they stood until the Justices were seated.

When the first Justice spoke, the warrior slave took a deep breath. "Prince Vegeta of the Planet Vegeta. Your case is intriguing, unusual, and quite unique. However, we have been told of your status as a slave."

At the mere mention of that word, the warrior wanted to cringe, to go back against a wall and vanish into the oblivion of the mind. However the fourth Justice would hold up the paper that he knew to be the Original Documents that bound the collar around his throat. Somehow though, he could see what little hope he had of freedom slowly slipping from his grasp that he'd come so close to. Black eyes would close briefly as his head tucked, his gaze fell to the floor before the long bench the Justices sat behind. He would simply give a short reply. "Yes Your Honor. It's true, I am still a slave, until the one that holds my papers desires to set me free."

The fifth Justice watched the reaction. This was not an act clearly from what he could see. In that dark gaze, he seen years of worry, of fighting, torment, and perhaps even grief and submission. Then all the Justices noticed this one act. Before them literally stood one person that seemed to have seen one too many battles, and then thrust suddenly to an environment that he had never seen. He still bore the appearance of years of experience, of being ruthlessly mistreated. The pause must have been more than that of the normal, but just the fact that the Saiyan didn't look up, shown a broken person, overwhelmed by this new world, yet faced it head on instead of cowering back in a corner.

The seventh Justice finally broke the silence. "How many Owners have you served under roughly?"

Thinking back, Vegeta's fingers would begin to tap together rapidly in count, trying to recall names, when they had come into his life, after who disposed of him, and then finally the slave would speak up as if reaching a rough approximation. "I have lost count after about forty Your Honor, but I believe it to be around the range of 70 or more. There is just simply to many to count and keep straight."

This raised a few brows but the sixth would then speak up. "We will deliberate on this and we'll see what to do with you. Until then, you will remain here."

They would be gone for what seemed like hours, looking over the case that had started it, what was given fresh, and as he waited, he could feel a clinch in the gut that gripped him tightly. The Saiyan tightened his jaw, and tensed every muscle in his body before he would relax again. Four hours would pass, then five, then six. It would end with him again in anxious exhaustion as Officer Vanders ran his hand across the Saiyan's back to motion him to rise up. Then again he stood to face what may come head on as they came back to the room.

The first Justice would speak up finally. "Though it is in our power to grant you this freedom, we must first see how you react in different situations. You will be confined to this courthouse to undergo extensive testing of psychological, medical, and emotional states. Officer Vanders will be your handler, while we are your Owners. Fail this and you will never find your freedom, pass it, and you will be freed. Good luck, this is now dismissed."

Upon leaving the room, Vegeta stood in shocked silence and though he understood why logically, he quietly shivered, as he turned back to his new handler. Vegeta just couldn't believe what he was hearing. Confined again, to here? The warrior sank donw to his knees to let his mind wrap around what was just stated. His freedom had been so close, and now it seemed again so distant. Soon he would be led to a holding facility that the Saiyan would enter and then the door would lock behind him, making him cringe heavily at the sound of the heavy door slamming shut and locking behind him.~