Shavneral

Chapter 5 – Kakarot

"Come on, Kakarot, it's just a little needle," the man said harshly, "Get ahold of yourself!"

I was deaf to his words, my gaze tethered to the syringe in his hand. A growl was building in my throat and I was conscious that I was shaking. I showed the man the full length of my canine teeth and snarled in defiance.

A whip cracked at my side and I flinched before realizing it hadn't struck me.

"It's only a needle," the man repeated, forcing my eyes to meet his. I recognized the ugly moss green irises and the scar across the bridge of his nose that had a nose ring in it. It was the man from before, not that it made any difference.

"No." I growled. His gaze hardened and he raised the whip threateningly. I couldn't move my arms to defend myself, so I did the one thing I could.

I summoned all my nerve at spat in his face. The whip literally whistled through the air before slashing across my back. I winced, but I had to hide my smirk from him as well. I'd made him mad, and it was a small comfort to know I could still scare people.

"Fine." The man gritted out, wiping the offending saliva from his ugly eyes, "Have it your way, for now."

Then he left without another word, taking his needle and his whip with him.

I breathed a sigh of relief that no one would hear. It wasn't necessarily the needle I was afraid of – I wasn't even really that afraid of it – it was the fact that I knew it was full of testosterone that would make me forget myself in a whirl of anger and madness. The men had used those damn needles on every other animal but me until now; and the fact that they were willing to try it now was discouraging. It meant I'd lost some of my edge. I didn't scare them as much as I used to. How long before they lost their wariness and started burning me again? How long before they lost their interest and sent me to slaughter? I shivered. I'd seen the dogs and bulls and boars that were loaded into trucks and sent away to be butchered. The very thought was enough to harden my resolve against the needles. Much as I hated this place and the hell that was my life, I wasn't willing to give it up just yet.

A heard footsteps and I raised my head a little, the cuff around my neck chafing the skin.

"Kakarot?" someone whispered, "Kakarot are you in here?"

Now I might not be the best at remembering voices, but I'd know that one anywhere.

"Vegeta?" I breathed; surely he was too far away to hear, but I swear his breath hitched and I could almost taste the tension in the air.

"Kakarot… where are you? I can't see," Vegeta said quietly.

I assumed he wasn't as accustomed to the dark as I was, and I didn't want to raise my voice for fear of alerting the guards outside. How had Vegeta managed to sneak past them? Why was he here?

Something was nagging at me, and I finally slowed down and listened to one thought that was fast becoming a loop in my mind. You don't trust him, remember? Just stay quiet and he'll go away.

But did I really want him to leave? Especially when my reputation, and even my life, was on the line now?

I hesitated a moment longer, then rattled the chains fastened to the cuffs on my wrists, alerting Vegeta of my location. The tinny, jangling sound reverberated in the still air; but it wasn't a suspicious sound, so I didn't expect it to send off any alarms or anything.

The sound of footsteps resumed; tentative, but steady. I peered through the darkness, and a chink of moonlight between the rafters fell on one of the planes of Vegeta's face, illuminating one of his coal eyes. Distrust set in before I could silence it, and I felt my entire body tense like a coiled spring.

"It smells like a barn in here," he muttered, almost to himself, glancing at the other cages before focusing on me. The one black eye I could see through the blackness blinked slowly, giving me a good, long look at the depthless, midnight pupil fixed on my face.

"Why are you here?" I whispered, my voice sounding even more rasping at such a low octave.

"To get you out of this place," he replied softly, his mouth barely moving. His gaze drifted to the chains around my wrists and neck and the one eye I could see narrowed angrily.

Hope leapt in my chest for a millisecond before I crushed it, wrestling it down and locking it away. No. I won't… I can't….

"Why?" I challenged in an undertone.

"Because…" Vegeta hesitated, obviously trying to think of a legitimate reason, then his eyes – or rather, the eye that was visible to me in the dark – fell on the shackles and bars again and he growled, "Because! Look what they've done to you, Kakarot; there is nothing right about this!"

"It's all I've got," I pointed out, "How do I know the world out there won't be worse than this?"

Vegeta was silent for a moment, "Kakarot, what could possibly be worse than this?"

I averted my gaze, thinking of the animals sent to slaughter.

"I'm not asking you to trust me," Vegeta went on quietly, "I'm just asking you to come with me; how will you know what the world is like if you never see it?"

I was about to retort, but he had a point.

"Let me help you," Vegeta's dark, dark eye met mine for a moment.

I was torn. I didn't want to stay here, I was afraid of my future here; but I'd learned over the years to never trust anyone. It was next to impossible for me to just throw away lessons learned in blood and scars.

-Flashback-

- A man in an expensive-looking red coat unlocked the door to my cage and opened it a fraction of an inch. Immediately, I bolted for the opening in a bid for escape, hardly daring to believe my luck. I was an inch away from freedom when I crashed headlong into unforgiving iron bars and fell back to the ground, jarring my shoulder painfully as I landed hard on my side.

The man laughed out loud; there was absolutely no humor in that laugh.

He looked down at me with harsh, steel-grey eyes.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" he sneered.

I sat up gingerly, grinding my teeth to keep from yelping as I wrenched my hurt shoulder.

"Remember that, pet. Freedom hurts," he put on a falsely caring expression, "The world is a cruel, painful place. A livewire like you would stumble and fall on their first step out there."

He leaned over me before adding with malice, "And if you fall in the real world, pet, you can't get back up so easily."-

Vegeta was watching me silently, unwavering and steadfast as a tree. I found something akin to respect for his patience.

"Please, Kakarot?" he asked softly, the moonlight landing on the hand he placed on one of the bars between us. There was a promise in that small gesture, whether I chose to acknowledge it or not.

I looked at him, warring within myself. I was about to say yes, to thank him a thousand times and follow wherever he would lead; but then I saw the bars and fire and whips flash before my eyes and I shuddered involuntarily.

I looked away; something was clogging my throat, making it impossible to swallow.

"I… I c-can't, Vegeta," I murmured in a voice thick with unshed tears. I hadn't cried since I lost the end of my thumb; I wasn't about to start now.

"I know you're scared," he said slowly, placing his other hand on one of the bars and facing me stanchly, "And I know they've done some terrible things to you in this place. But I'm not here to hurt you, I swear it. You have friends out there. You have sons. You have family."

I shook my head slowly, the chains attached to the cuff around my neck clinking, I felt I was unable to listen and keep my resolution not to cry at the same time. And I chose to close my ears rather than succumb to weakness.

"I just can't," I whispered almost too quietly for him to hear. I was surprised to hear the next two words that left my lips, "I'm sorry."

Vegeta's eyebrows lowered dangerously.

"Yes, you can, Kakarot!" he snapped, "Don't give me the self-pity act; I don't need it and neither do you! I came here to rescue you, so I'll ask you one more time, will you join me in leaving this hell hole or not?"

I bit my lip hard, but I couldn't hold back a shaky sob.

Vegeta's eyes sparked with fire for a few moments, then, slowly, all the anger slipped from his face and was replaced by regret.

"Kakarot, I'm sorry," he murmured, "I didn't mean to snap at you. I just…. I thought if I came here and offered to help you you'd be begging me to get you out. Now you're telling me you can't? Why not, Kakarot? Why not?"

I looked at him carefully. Why not, indeed?

"I don't know h-how…." I began shakily, "….to live if not as a prisoner….."

"That isn't true, Kakarot. And you know it."

"But it is!" I burst out, "It is, Vegeta! All I know is what I have here. I think…. I think the shock of seeing the outside world would kill me."

I had to swallow to continue, this conversation was more than I'd spoken at once in years.

"I… I don't belong out there." I said brokenly.

Vegeta's expression didn't change for a good three seconds. Then he smiled a sad little smile.

"You don't have to belong, Kakarot. No one's asking that of you."

Still I hesitated. I'd prayed for a miracle, for some way out, for years on end. It just seemed like it was too easy.

Then Vegeta said something that changed everything, "What do you have to lose?"

I blinked. What did I have to lose? Things couldn't get any worse from here, could they? I winced as I imagined the haunted, tortured faces of the animals as they were loaded into the truck bound for the slaughterhouse. I wasn't going to become one of them. Not while I still had the will to fight.

"Alright," I said shortly. It was only one word, but it meant a lot. Vegeta looked at me for confirmation, and he found the answer in my eyes.

He smiled genuinely and stood back a little, a shadow falling over half of his face.

"Well then, brace yourself, Kakarot. Tonight, you are a free man."

TBC