Poison

Two space pods crashed into the surface of the planet, shaking the ground for miles around. From the space pods emerged two saiyans – the destroyers of worlds. The future destroyers of the world they just arrived on.

"This place is a dump," Raditz groused, looking around at the gray, barren landscape. "Who would buy this dustball?"

Nappa grunted his agreement as he checked his scouter for signs of life. It took a few minutes for it to find any, and what it found was pathetically weak. Nappa frowned. "This planet isn't going to be any fun at all. Let's get this over with."

"When is purging ever fun anymore?" Raditz grumbled. They hadn't had a challenging mission since Vegeta got stuck on some mudball. It was part of their punishment for his pod malfunctioning. They were given boring purges and too many clean-up missions. There were countless beatings between their missions, but they weren't growing in strength since they were also being starved on top of everything else.

The two saiyans flew toward the weak energy signals, ready to finish the pointless purge and get back to Frieza's ship where they would endure more beatings because of their prince's absence. A few minutes passed before they landed in a small, primitive village with fewer than a thousand inhabitants. No other energy signals were to be found on the rest of the planet. It was more barren than they originally thought.

They landed in the center of the village, frightening all the people around who saw them. The people – for lack of a better term – looked more like giant groundhogs with pale gold fur, dark brown faces, and glowing green eyes. Weak. Cute, almost.

"What are these things?" Raditz asked when he saw them.

Nappa shrugged. "Who cares? Let's blast them and get out of here."

Raditz wasn't going to argue. He raised his left hand and in one blast obliterated a quarter of the village. Pandemonium began as fires spread and the creatures ran for safety, screaming in their proto-language in fear. The sound was enough to get the saiyans' bloodlust boiling.

The long-haired saiyan laughed at the devastation. "Hey, Nappa you think they're any good roasted? I could go for some meat."

Nappa licked his lips and laughed with his fellow saiyan. "I say we give it a try."

In less than ten minutes every one of the planet's natives were killed. Once they were all dead, Nappa and Raditz started a fire and picked some of the healthiest-looking corpses and tore them limb from limb, roasting the pieces over the fire. They hardly waited for the meat to cook before they started devouring it, blood and juice dripping down their chins and hands. They were worse than barbarians in their starved state, frantically eating to sate their hunger.

"It's not the best," Raditz said between bites, "but it's good enough."

Rather than responding, Nappa grabbed another leg from the fire and ravenously tore into it. He felt the same way about the somewhat bitter, stringy meat, but he was hungry enough to eat about anything. He growled a warning to the other saiyan when he reached for a large piece of meat he claimed as his own.

Raditz backed off and threw a young creature's corpse over the fire to cook while he finished the meat he was eating. He had already eaten two adults, but his hunger was not satisfied. It had been far too long since his last meal. His body was metabolizing the food faster than he could eat. So he, like Nappa, gorged himself on the dead people until he could hardly move, he was so full.

When they were finished with their grisly meal they returned to their space pods, all set to return to Frieza's ship. They finished the purge with plenty of time to spare, so hopefully they would be given a reprieve from at least one of their daily beatings. Their hopes weren't high, but there was always the slim chance that Frieza would be in a good mood…

"Lord Frieza, the saiyan pods are set to arrive in ten minutes."

The tyrant nodded at the soldier's report and turned to look out the huge window in his throne room. All he could see was the endless black void of space, but soon enough two small spheres would come into view. Then he would see if they fell for his trap. He grinned in wicked anticipation.

The next few minutes crawled by before the saiyans reached Frieza's ship. When they got out of their space pods they didn't look good. They were pale, sweaty, and exhausted. Still, despite feeling worse than they looked, they showed no weakness in front of the staff at the hangar.

"Welcome back, monkeys," came the cold, smooth voice of Frieza's right-hand man. "You are to report to Lord Frieza immediately."

The saiyans glared at Zarbon's back as he led them to the lizard's throne room. Neither of them felt like answering to their tormentor, but they knew they had no choice. With heads held high they walked to the foot of Frieza's throne and kneeled down before him.

Frieza smirked when he saw the saiyan warriors. They looked worse than he ever hoped for. They must have really gone to town on their mission. "Report."

Nappa took a deep breath before saying, "We completed the purge in less than an hour, Lord Frieza. There is no more life on Planet 00713QS."

"Very good, monkeys," Frieza praised them patronizingly. It wasn't as if their mission had been difficult in any sense of the word. "I do hope you didn't consume any of the civilians while you were there. They were mutants whose bodies contained a poisonous substance to resist the disease that wiped out most of their population."

The saiyans visibly paled despite already having a sickly pallor.

Frieza waved his hand and turned his hovering throne to look out the window behind him as he had done before their arrival. "You are dismissed."

As the saiyans turned to leave they heard Frieza, Zarbon, and Dodoria burst into cruel laughter. They knew the saiyans ate the natives and inadvertently poisoned themselves. Even if they hadn't known before from the obvious physical signs, the expressions on the faces of the saiyans gave it away when Frieza told them about the planet's inhabitants.

"It can't be deadly," Raditz hissed once the doors were closed behind them. "He wouldn't kill us that easily."

"No, but it's probably going to be worse than death," Nappa groaned. He winced as a sharp pain shot through his entire body and ended in a splitting soon. Knowing Frieza's cruelty, though, that was unlikely.

The saiyans went back to their quarters and collapsed on their hard cots, instantly unconscious. They were going to rest as much as possible before they were inevitably assigned a new

Raditz agreed. He already felt miserable and he could see that Nappa did too. What they were feeling now was just the beginning. If they had any luck, the poison would get out of their mission. And it was likely they would be sent on a mission soon for the sole purpose of making them feel even worse. At least they hadn't received a beating. Yet.

A/N: And that is what you get when you eat strange creatures. Poor Nappa and Raditz.

Frieza does know where Vegeta is. He purposely sent a rescue team from far away because he wants an excuse to "punish" Vegeta worse. The longer he's gone, the worse it is.

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