Frieza

"Lord Frieza requests an audience with you at once, monkeys," Zarbon sneered.

Nappa and Raditz exchanged a quick glance before standing from their seats at the mess hall. No doubt they weren't going to be praised for their quick work on planet 1084XR; rather, Frieza was going to demand an explanation of why their third member was missing.

As they were walking through the long corridor, Nappa opened his metal link with Raditz and told him, 'He's going to want to know about the prince, so keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking.'

Raditz groaned. He knew Nappa meant well most of the time, but he wasn't very gifted with words and more often than not what he said came out wrong and got them all into trouble. He was a much better speaker, but held a much lower rank, so his words were counted as nothing. And anyway, he was a third-class warrior and Nappa was a member of the elite guard, which meant he was automatically in charge when the prince was absent.

They reached the metal doors flanked by guards that led to the throne room. There was no point in hesitating when the doors opened for them. With heads held high they marched in and kneeled while they waited to be addressed. Slowly, the hovering throne turned and faced the bowed soldiers.

"Ah, so it's true that my favorite little monkey is missing."

A shiver ran down the spines of all those who heard the sickeningly sweet tone the ugly, scratchy voice used. It was so discordant it disgusted everyone, even Zarbon, Frieza's right-hand man.

"Yes, Lord Frieza," Nappa ground out.

Frieza chuckled and moved his throne closer to them. "And where has he gone?" he asked curiously.

Nappa swallowed hard before answering. "He had a malfunction with his pod and crash-landed on a planet on the way to our last mission."

"Oh, really?" Frieza asked with feigned astonishment. "And how do you know he wasn't trying to run away?"

The bald man looked up angrily at the grinning tyrant. He hated how he always berated his prince. He could stand the insults hurled at himself and Raditz, but it was too much when Vegeta was attacked.

"He is not a coward! He would never run away!"

Frieza scoffed. "You saiyans are just a bunch of overgrown monkeys. So rude. I have a small squadron sent to retrieve your precious prince, but I am holding you two responsible for his disappearance."

"But Lord Frieza!"

"Silence!" Faster than the eye could see Frieza whipped Nappa across the face with his tail. "You will be held responsible and as such shall be punished until his return."

The tyrant stood from his throne and paced around the saiyans. They already knew what was coming and he relished their apprehension. "Once Prince Vegeta is back, I will punish him personally for trying to escape his duties."

By then both saiyans were trembling with fear and rage. They were humiliated to be so helpless against a tiny little slime ball like Frieza, but they were powerless to rectify their situation. Nappa in particular was furious about Frieza's promise to 'punish' Vegeta. He was officially the young prince's bodyguard, but he was too weak to stop the sadistic lizard from harming him. All he could do was stand by and watch and carry him to the medical bay when it was all over.

He sighed in defeat as Raditz went crashing into the wall across the room. He watched with detached disinterest as his comrade was mercilessly beaten. He heard the cracking sounds as bones broke, smelled the running blood, and felt the heat of the ki blasts aimed at the other warrior. He winced in humiliation each time the weakling allowed a cry of pain to slip out. Not that he could blame him. Vegeta was the only warrior in all of Frieza's army who could ever endure an entire beating without crying out.

Soon Raditz was dragged out of the throne room and it was Nappa's turn. He raised his chin defiantly even as blood trickled down his cheek from when he was hit a few minutes earlier. He may not be able to keep from voicing his agony, but he wouldn't look away. At least in some small way he could honor his race.

'Someday,' he thought, 'someday Prince Vegeta will kill you, you sick bastard. And when that day comes, you'll be sorry.' With one final kick to the back of his neck he was rendered unconscious.

Like Raditz, Nappa was unceremoniously dragged out of Frieza's throne room to the medical bay where he was put into a rejuvenation chamber and left to heal. Both saiyans spent nearly two full days in the chambers before they were declared well enough to be sent on another purge mission.

They were putting on their new armor before departure when Raditz couldn't hold it in any longer. Years of pent-up frustration overwhelmed his reasoning as he lunged at the older saiyan who was caught completely off guard.

"Why do we have to live like this?" he screamed in Saiya-go as he drove his fist into his superior's nose. "Why couldn't we have died with the rest of our race?"

Nappa threw the long-haired saiyan off and growled. "We live like this for the sake of our prince. We have to protect him until he's strong enough to avenge our people."

Raditz clenched his hands into fists and scowled at Nappa. "Really? We're supposed to protect him? You and I both know he's the strongest of us and he's still not strong enough! He may never be!"

Nappa backhanded Raditz and kicked him in the solar plexus. "Don't say that! He will ascend and he will kill Frieza."

"That's what you always say," Raditz spat. "I want it to be true as much as you, but how long will it take? We'll be killed before it happens!"

"No, we won't be killed," Nappa snarled. "That's what Frieza wants you to believe. He wants you to give up on Vegeta. We can't let him get to us."

There was no argument to that. Frieza loved breaking the saiyans down both physically and mentally. And he was good at it. If not for their pride, they would have broken long ago. It was their pride that made him hate them so much. Their pride was the saiyans' downfall, the reason they were exterminated. Thanks to Frieza, Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta were the only survivors of the genocide. They could never forgive him for destroying their planet. Their lives lost all purpose aside from killing the lizard. He was why they lived and it was the hope in his death that they stuck behind their child prince and endured beatings on his behalf.

Frieza must die.

A/N: I'm hoping to round out the characters of Nappa and Raditz in this fic. Tell me how I'm doing!