Memories Lost

Vegeta knelt in front of Frieza's throne. He was alone, defenseless. Nappa and Raditz were kept at the door, able to do nothing more than watch his next round of torture. Vegeta released a shaky breath and clenched his fists. There was no escape. There would never be any escape. He was stuck, trapped in the degrading life of servitude he hated. He waited for Frieza to acknowledge him. A trickle a sweat ran down his neck. Was he healed only to be beaten again?

"I'm glad to see you've finally recovered, Vegeta," Frieza said.

Vegeta made no response. He didn't miss the lizard's patronizing tone. He knew it took a ridiculously long time to heal. He didn't know exactly how long he had been unconscious, but it had to have been a few days at least.

Frieza swirled the wine in his glass and grinned at the kneeling saiyan. "If I recall correctly, you told me that you used an old saiyan space pod to leave the planet you were stranded on."

"Yes, Lord Frieza."

"You also told me there was no saiyan on the planet, probably dead. His mission was never completed."

Vegeta did not like the direction his interrogation was taking. He had a feeling he knew exactly what Frieza was getting at. Somehow, he had to avoid it. But he couldn't lie. Lying never worked. "Yes, Lord Frieza. It was no loss. The planet is worthless."

"Oh? And what makes you say that?"

"It has limited resources. The natives are weak and primitive. They would be no use to you."

Frieza sipped his wine. Vegeta was hiding something, he could feel it. He was never wrong about Vegeta. Never. "Would it be profitable in the world trade?"

Vegeta froze. He was torn between answering honestly to save himself and lying to save the planet and its inhabitants, specifically his pack. He swallowed. "It may make a very small profit, Lord Frieza. Hardly worth purging."

"I see." Frieza took another drink of his wine. "I appreciate your commentary, my pet, but I will send a team to purge it at once."

"No!"

"Excuse me?" A sly smile crept across the tyrant's black lips.

Vegeta cursed himself. He shook his head. "Nothing, Lord Frieza."

"That's what I thought." He turned his attention to Zarbon, who was standing off to his right. "Zarbon, send word that I want a purge team sent to planet 1076XR right away."

Zarbon bowed. "As you wish, Lord Frieza."

Every scouter in the room came to life as someone's power level jumped. The noise of the scouters rose in volume as the power increased. Many of the soldiers looked around, wondering who the source of the power was. Vegeta's spikes of hair appeared to be blowing in the wind. But there was no wind. Some of the soldiers closer to him took a step back.

Frieza's smile widened. Seems he struck a nerve. "Is something the matter, monkey?"

Vegeta growled. His tail bristled and unwound from his waist to lash behind him. He looked up at his master with pure, unadulterated loathing burning in his obsidian eyes. "You will not purge that planet," he said, so low he was barely audible. His voice was laced with his checked rage.

The tyrant's smile turned down. "You presume to tell me what I can and cannot do?"

"You will not purge it!" Vegeta roared. In a flash he sprang from his position on the floor and fired a beam of ki at point blank range at Frieza. Some of the older model scouters exploded when his power flared beyond their limit. He landed in a crouch, ready to fight. He didn't care how severely outclassed he was. He had to protect his pack. He was doing the very thing that made him swear off all attachments years ago. He was risking his life for the sake of another.

Frieza was taken by surprise at Vegeta's outburst. How could he have become that powerful? It didn't matter, he was still far too weak to pose a threat. He rose out of his throne and scowled at the child prince.

The frisson amongst the soldiers was palpable as hushed voices exploded throughout the throne room, but one rose above the rest. "His power is over 25,000!"

Vegeta snarled as his tormentor slowly approached as if stalking his prey. He screamed and forced his power higher until the ki burned his muscles. He shot forward and started kicking and punching faster than many could see. His fury grew as Frieza easily blocked or dodged each blow. He spun around and finally managed to land a roundhouse kick on Frieza's head, but the lizard was unfazed. That didn't mean the kick didn't anger him. He reached up, grabbed the saiyan's leg, and swung him around and around before launching him into the far wall. Vegeta was stunned, but he jumped to his feet and charged the lizard. At the last second he phased behind Frieza to attack from behind, but his attack was met with an elbow in his gut. He doubled over, coughing and gasping for air.

"You little trickster," Frieza growled, "You brought this upon yourself."

He slapped Vegeta with his tail, cutting his cheek. Vegeta winced in pain, but instead of stepping down he raised his ki until he was surrounded by an electric blue aura. He stepped forward and threw a ki blast at Frieza. But the blast hit the soldiers on the opposite side of the room, killing them instantly.

'Damnit!' Vegeta thought. 'Where did he go?' He spun in a circle, looking around warily for any sign of the lizard. All he saw was a group of terrified soldiers backed against the walls. He sneered at their cowardice. Then he saw Zarbon sneaking toward the door on his way to give orders to purge Earth. Vegeta shot into the air and kicked Zarbon to the floor, landing in a low crouch.

Zarbon rose to his feet, his left hand covering his cheek where Vegeta kicked him. He glared at the saiyan prince, angrier about his flawless appearance being maimed than anything. His right hand clenched into a fist. "Why you little monkey brat! You'll pay for that!"

Nappa and Raditz tried to run to their prince, to get him to calm down, but they were restrained by the guards at the door. They growled. Always held back, they could never, never help their prince when he was in trouble. They struggled and cursed but the guards were stronger and unrelenting.

"Damnit! What is he doing?" Raditz hissed to Nappa.

The bald saiyan growled and thrashed about to free himself. "I don't know. I haven't seen him like this since Frieza murdered the king and queen!"

Raditz stopped struggling and stared dumbly at his superior. "Oh no. You don't think?"

"Don't say it."

"But he—"

"Shut up! Use your head, you idiot. If you say it and someone hears you, Frieza will know and take advantage of it."

Raditz pursed his lips and glanced over at the fight between Zarbon and Vegeta. The young prince was holding his own in his rage. "It's true though, isn't it? He's formed bonds with someone on that planet. He's acting on instinct to protect them."

"Yes. Damnit! He can't do this, not now! He's not powerful enough!"

"You have to admit, he's pretty damn strong. Last I heard his power was peaking at 31,000."

"It's not enough."

"I know."

Zarbon blocked Vegeta's punch with his forearm and swung his leg forward, connecting with Vegeta's groin and sending him flying into the wall behind him. Vegeta cringed as pain exploded through his body, but he wouldn't quit. He picked himself up from the floor and flew at his opponent again. Before he could reach Zarbon, though, Frieza appeared out of nowhere and smacked him to the floor again. He didn't rise from his prone position as a rivulet of blood oozed from a gash on his temple.

"What the hell was that about?" Zarbon wondered aloud. He smirked at the fallen prince and batted his emerald braid over his shoulder.

Frieza grinned, then started chuckling. His chuckles grew until he was howling with laughter. "I think I just figured out how to finally break my monkey prince, Zarbon!"

"What do you mean, Lord?"

"Oh, this is just too much! My monkey wants to protect someone on that little mudball. He thinks he can save them from the almighty Frieza!" The tyrant laughed again.

Zarbon joined in on his laughter. "How precious."

"Change of plans, Zarbon. I don't want to send a purge team to that planet. It's probably not worth it anyway. Summon Malaka."

"Yes, my Lord," Zarbon said as he bowed. He turned on his heel and strode out of the throne room to find the scientist and doctor who was most knowledgeable about saiyan anatomy. The green man had no idea what his master was planning, but it had to be good if Malaka was to be involved somehow. He grinned maliciously.

Frieza returned to his throne and picked up his glass of wine. It was a wonderful day, indeed, when he finally found the key to breaking his little pet's pride forever. His plan would take time, of course, but the sweetest rewards were worth waiting for. He smirked and took another sip of his wine. 'I should kill him for his insolence, but I have much better things in store for him. He will be all mine. I will break him completely, and then that raw power will be mine to use. Sleep well, Prince Vegeta, because when you wake up you're going to pay for this little tantrum.' Frieza cracked his knuckles and ran his tongue over his top lip. How he loved his monkey.

...

Bulma rolled onto her stomach and sighed contentedly. Another day spent on the beach was perfectly heavenly. It was their last day in Spain and she intended to spend it doing nothing but relaxing. They were going to Italy the next day, sailing across the Mediterranean. She was thoroughly enjoying her vacation with her parents. There was nothing better than sand, sun, and water, and there was plenty of it everywhere they were going.

She reached over and pulled a magazine out of her mother's beach bag and started flipping through the glossy pages. She ogled the pictures of cute male models and dreamed of someday looking as good as the glamorous women with their long, perfect legs, shiny, voluminous hair, and manicured nails. Their pictures were almost enough to make her kick the habit of chewing her nails when she was deep in thought, but not quite. The actual articles in the magazine were boring to her. The majority of them were celebrity gossip and news about reality shows that were going to start soon. She wasn't interested in any of that. Why would she be? At ten years old she was as famous as any of the actresses hitting the headlines, though for different reasons. She was known for her wealth and intelligence, not her sex scandals.

Maybe she was a bit young, but she couldn't help wishing that someday she would find herself a perfect prince charming who was as smart as her and handsome to boot. He would worship the ground she walked on and treat her like a real princess. She scoffed at her own silly thoughts. Who was she kidding? At the rate she was going, she would never meet anyone her age who would ever be worthy of her attention. At school she was with kids years older than her. When she graduated from college and started working at Capsule Corporation, she would be surrounded by people old enough to be her grandparents. Finding her prince charming there wasn't likely. She shook those thoughts from her mind. She was much too young to be worrying about these things, she reminded herself.

"I can't wait to grow up," she mumbled. It was frustrating, sometimes, having the intelligence above and beyond that of an average adult. Still, she was a child and she had the maturity of a child, which made it hard for anyone to take her seriously.

Mrs. Brief turned her head to see her daughter at her side. "What was that, dear?"

"Nothing, Mom," Bulma said, closing the magazine and shoving it back in the bag. "So I'm going to start lessons at the dojo as soon as we get back, right?"

"If that's what you want." Mrs. Brief pushed her sunglasses up on her forehead and sipped her diet cola. "Are you that eager to start?"

"Yeah. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully I'm not grouped with a bunch of five year-olds because I'm a beginner though."

Mrs. Brief giggled. "You're not a beginner, honey. Vegeta taught you a lot already."

"I guess." Bulma shrugged and started playing with a loose strand of hair. "You don't think Vegeta would come back while we're away, do you?"

"Don't worry, honey. If he comes back he knows he's welcome even if we're not there," Mrs. Brief reassured her daughter, though inside she wasn't as confident as she sounded. She had the same fear, sometimes. She was not nearly as hopeful in the boy's return as her daughter, but that didn't mean she had completely given up on him. In fact, every morning and every evening she would silently pray that Vegeta would come home soon, safe and sound. The idea of anything bad happening to him was more than enough to break her heart all over again.

"Do you think he ever thinks about us?"

"I'm sure he does, sweetie. You know I don't think he really wanted to go, but he felt he had to. Call me crazy, but I think he thought of us as his family as much as we think of him as family. He won't forget us."

"I hope so."

...

Zarbon strode into the throne room and bowed before his master. "Lord Frieza, Malaka is here."

"Thank you Zarbon, you may let him in," Frieza said. He stole a glance at the lifeless form of the saiyan prince still sprawled out on his floor. The puddle of blood around his head had grown considerably over the past few minutes. He'd had to order the other monkeys be removed from his throne room with all the commotion they were making trying to get to him to take him to the medical bay. Frieza wasn't going to let him enter a rejuvenation chamber yet. He was in need of a little operation first.

His cold, red eyes shifted to the doors as they opened and the brown reptilian man with a tuft of orange feathers crowning his head walked in and knelt down respectfully. "You wished to see me, Lord Frieza?"

Frieza sat down in his throne and made himself comfortable before speaking. "You are the doctor who takes care of the saiyan monkeys, are you not?"

"Yes, Lord Frieza. I have studied their unique physiology extensively."

"Very good. I have a small task for you involving Vegeta. You see, he has been away for over a year, and during that time he acquired a new source of power, shall we say?" Frieza took a sip of his wine and continued, "Rather than destroying that power source, I want to use it to control him. Tell me, is it possible to make him forget all memories of the past year of his pitiful existence?"

Malaka was silent for a few moments, unsure of how to answer. "Lord Frieza, it would be possible to operate on his brain and create lesions that would damage his memory, but I do not know that it would be possible to only take away memories from a specific time period."

Frieza frowned. He did not like that answer very much at all. "Oh really?"

The reptilian scientist stammered a little before starting over. "What I mean to say, Lord, is that it may be easier to install a device in his brain that will, in effect, short circuit any memories he has of a particular thing. Would that be acceptable, my Lord?"

"I fail to see how that would be any easier. How will you know which memories to disrupt?"

"Er, well, if you could tell me what he was thinking about when he found this new power, I would be able to make him think of it again and use a brain scan to map the areas of his brain most active, Lord." Malaka was not sure that this would truly be possible. What his master was asking him to do was uncharted territory in neuroscience. Of course he could easily destroy memories by damaging the saiyan's hippocampus, but how could he target the damage to only affect particular memories? There was no way to do it without damaging other memories as well.

Frieza propped his elbow on his armrest and held his chin in his hand. He was growing bored. He swirled the wine in his glass with his free hand. "I mentioned purging and selling the planet where he resided during that year. He has grown attachments to someone there, I believe. I want him to forget that person or persons. However, it would be ideal if, at a later time, he was able to access those memories."

Malaka bowed his head. "This is a very difficult experiment, Lord Frieza, but I will try my best." Mentally he cursed his luck. Why was he given such an impossible task? There was no way to make memories come and go! But if he failed, he would surely be killed. He had to figure out a way to do the impossible, and fast.

"You had better not fail me, Malaka. Now take the monkey and go. I expect you to keep me updated on the progress of this little experiment. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Lord Frieza."

While Malaka stood and gathered the saiyan prince in his arms and carried him out of the throne room, Frieza turned his throne to gaze out the window behind him. A cruel smirk was curling his lips as he imagined gaining the stubborn saiyan's complete obedience once and for all. It may take years, but it would be worth it. So very worth it. He finished his wine with a self-satisfied grunt of approval at his own sadistic genius.

Zarbon stood at his side, watching his master from the corner of his eye. He was eager to know what Frieza had in store for the young monkey. "If you don't mind my asking, Lord Frieza, how exactly do you plan to break him by destroying his memories?"

"It is the people on that planet who he has become attached to, Zarbon. They are the reason for his sudden increase in ki. Imagine if he turned that manifest anger inward! It will be glorious."

"Why would he do that, Lord?"

Frieza's smirk grew until his teeth were bared in more of a snarl. "He will not remember them, my dear Zarbon. He will continue his purge missions and grow stronger. I will eradicate the last traces of honor that fool holds on to. But he will never let go of that damned pride." He paused to laugh sinisterly. "At least, not until he destroys that planet. When he does, his memories will be restored, and the guilt will crush the last of his defiance. Then he will be fully mine as he hates himself more than he hates me."

"A brilliant plan, Master."

Malaka entered the medical bay and laid the unconscious saiyan on an examination table. He was still unsure of how to go about the operation that would hopefully keep Vegeta from accessing certain memories, but he had to figure it out soon. At least if his patient woke up before he had it all figured out he would still be too weak to put up much of a fight. A sedative would most likely be sufficient to put him out again. He sighed and cleaned the cut on his temple while he considered how to do what Frieza demanded he do. It disgusted him, really. Malaka spent many years serving on Vegeta-sei and had come to respect the saiyan race in a way most of Frieza's army would never understand. He was able to see the more noble side of them. They were not bloodthirsty monsters until Frieza took control of them. It was a pity, really.

"Foolish saiyan, you always bring this on yourself," he muttered as he finished cleaning up and bandaging some of Vegeta's worse injuries sustained in his short, brutal fight. He sighed and rolled the bed to the machine that could map his brain and show which areas activated when given different stimuli. "I regret having to do this to you."

The scientist moved the saiyan into the machine and started it up. He sighed again. "Who are you concerned about on planet 1076XR, Vegeta?"

He looked at the screen when it blipped to life. He was given a detailed three-dimensional picture of Vegeta's brain with the most active areas appearing bright red. As he predicted, the most active areas were in the hippocampal region. The brain scan was only so accurate though. It was going to be difficult to stop his brain from being able to access memories from any particular area and not have any adverse effects on another area. Malaka asked Vegeta more questions concerning his stay on Earth, hoping to get as small an area as possible located with the scan.

'At least saiyans are aware of external stimuli even if they're out cold,' Malaka thought. They might not remember anything that happened around them, but numerous experiments showed that they could at least mentally respond to their surroundings while unconscious. That was about the extent of Malaka's assurance that he had narrowed down what area of Vegeta's brain he needed to operate on to get the desired results.

"I wonder how obvious it will be to you that you're missing a year's memories," Malaka said to the boy saiyan. "Perhaps I can make it that your thoughts will be redirected to different memories when you try to retrieve these. I'm not sure how, though."

The old doctor wheeled Vegeta into a private room and hooked him up to machines to measure his vitals while he worked out a method to reroute his memories. He was still reluctant to put him in a rejuvenation tank and have him fully healed before he could operate. Frieza wanted this done immediately, probably without having to knock the prince out again. Not that he really minded beating up his favorite pet, but he expected Malaka to obey promptly. Letting Vegeta heal before taking away his memories was not prompt enough.

After turning on the alarms that would alert him to any sudden changes in Vegeta's vital signs, Malaka returned to the brain scan machine to print the readouts from the scan and come up with a way to make Vegeta remember different things when he tried to remember the past year, or at least the people who he had become attached to. Malaka was not known for being a particularly sympathetic man, but he wasn't thrilled about doing this to the young prince. It was despicable to fuddle with another person's mind. Alas, orders were orders. He would sooner cross Vegeta than Frieza any day.

'Perhaps if I can design a synthetic neuron, I could connect it to the presynaptic neurons here and connect the axon in another area of the hippocampus.' Malaka turned to his personal computer and brought up all the files he had on saiyan neuropsychology. It would be tricky. Saiyans were notorious for rejecting any sort of prosthetics. Their immune systems would attack and destroy any foreign material quite rapidly.

'Another problem is that Lord Frieza wants Vegeta to be able to access these memories later. If the neurons aren't stimulated, they'll die. How can I prevent that from happening?' Malaka rubbed his forehead and rapped his fingers on his keyboard. There had to be a way to go about this without messing up and signing his death sentence.

Then the answer came to him: Stem cells. He could grow new neurons and implant them in Vegeta's brain. He would have to make sure they had the exact immunoglobulins and chemokines to guide them to the right area of the brain to form synaptic connections, but it was possible. He could also implant a tiny device that would periodically stimulate the disconnected neurons to keep them alive until it was time to reestablish the original connections.

"This had better work," he grumbled as he stood and gathered the materials he would need for the experiment. Trying it first on a less-valuable specimen would be preferable, but who else was there? Nappa? Raditz? Saiyans were practically extinct. He didn't have many to work with, so he would have to hope it went right the first time.

Malaka went into Vegeta's room. The room was silent aside from the shallow breathing of the saiyan and the beeping of the machines. Malaka prepared a syringe and rolled Vegeta onto his stomach. He was grateful he was still unconscious. That made things much easier. He stuck the needle in the base of Vegeta's tail and extracted the fluid from a small ventricle known to contain a high concentration of undifferentiated cells. The location made it easy for the stem cells to travel throughout the saiyan's body and take the place of damaged tissue anywhere.

The scientist stored the sample of stem cells and prepared for the first minor surgical operation. He washed his hands, put on gloves, and got started right away, not bothering with anesthetic. Either Vegeta wouldn't feel it because he was already unconscious or he would feel it and suffer through the procedure. Most soldiers weren't given the luxury of numbness in surgery anyway. Malaka cut a small hole in Vegeta's skull and took a small biopsy of Vegeta's brain to grow the stem cells in. He bandaged the saiyan's head and checked for any changes in his vitals. There was nothing worth noting.

'Saiyans really are a remarkable species.' Malaka put the biopsy in a Petri dish and added some of the stem cells he had collected. Watching them under a microscope, he could see them beginning to differentiate into neurons. So far his plan was working without a hitch, but it was still very early in the process, so he wasn't going to celebrate yet.

He was startled by one of the machines sounding an alarm as Vegeta's vitals changed. He looked over and saw the young saiyan rousing. Vegeta groaned and raised his hand to his head. No doubt the incision from earlier was stinging. Malaka stood and ran to his side.

"What's going on? I need a healing tank," Vegeta murmured. He felt groggy and every muscle in his body was burning in pain. Maybe he'd overdone it with the ki. "What happened?"

"You tried to fight Frieza," Malaka answered.

'Just great, now I'm going to have to knock him out again,' he thought.

Vegeta's eyes opened wide. "No! He sent a purge team to Earth. Damnit! I have to stop them!" The saiyan tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness hit him hard and he fell on his back.

"Lord Frieza has decided not to purge that planet," Malaka informed him. "Though I don't see what the big deal is."

"My…pack," Vegeta mumbled before slipping into the dark oblivion of unconsciousness.

Malaka sighed with relief. It was better that he wasn't required to use a sedative on the saiyan. He was already badly injured and his body was, no doubt, working to repair the extensive damage. A sedative would only slow down the process as his immune system would divide its focus between healing and destroying the substance flowing through his bloodstream.

"Your pack, Vegeta? You're in deeper than I thought." Malaka returned to his work, growing the stem cells into neurons sensitive to the right chemicals to guide them in growth away from the memories of Earth once they were implanted in Vegeta's brain.

While the stem cells were growing and differentiating, Malaka set to work designing a device that would provide electrical impulses to the areas being bypassed. Their connections would be cut, disabling him from being aware of the memories housed there even if the neurons were activated. He sent the design to the technology department in an urgent message. Hopefully the scientists there would have it prepared in an hour or less. During that time, he would implant the new neurons and make sure they grew as he hoped they would.

Brain surgery is risky business. Any wrong move and the patient could be permanently disabled or even killed. Malaka never enjoyed performing brain surgery, which was part of the reason he chose to specialize in saiyan medicine. They were mostly capable of healing their own brain injuries without his help. Throw them in a rejuvenation tank and they were good to go. But, unfortunately, he was given the daunting task of making Vegeta's memories irretrievable. Make him lose them, or at least make him overlook them no matter how hard he tried to access them.

The stem cells were ready. Some of the galaxy's best scientists were building a microscopic chip to stimulate the neurons responsible for the saiyan's memories that need to disappear. It would be finished shortly. Malaka needed to get started, not wanting to incur the wrath of Frieza or risk the saiyan prince waking up before he was finished with the operation. That would be disastrous. But, in case it happened, Malaka strapped the saiyan down to the bed so he wouldn't be able to move if he did wake up.

Malaka removed the bandage from Vegeta's head and sterilized a probe to insert in his brain, being as careful as possible not to tear any tissue unnecessarily. He had a monocle that magnified what he was seeing to the cellular level. Using the brain maps created by the scan, he located the area that needed to be cut off from the rest.

'There.' The reptilian scientist injected the new neurons into Vegeta's brain and watched as they moved and formed connections with other neurons. The old neurons retracted their axons and dendrites, effectively cutting themselves off from all contact with other neurons. 'Perfect. I hope this works.'

He heard the door to the operating room open and another doctor walked in. Appule. Malaka turned to him. "Do you have it?"

"Yes." He held up a pair of pincers that presumably held a device too small for the naked eye to see. Appule handed the pincers to the working doctor and watched as he dropped the unseen device into the probe.

Malaka could see the tiny device through his monocle. He pushed it to one of the disconnected neurons, which it latched on to like a parasite. The neuron was still connected to the others that had been bypassed in the operation, so any impulse it received would be transmitted to the rest, keeping them all alive.

"It's done." Malaka retracted the probe and set it on the tray next to the operation table. He placed the cutaway piece of bone back in place. The saiyan's immune system would take care of the rest, making sure it wouldn't become dislodged. He sutured up the incision, applied some antibiotic cream, and put a bandage over it.

Appule was curious about the experimental operation. He was highly amused that the saiyan was being used as a sort of guinea pig. He hated Vegeta more than most of the doctors on the ship. Too often had the young saiyan threatened his life and spoken to him disrespectfully. "Did it work?"

The older doctor shrugged. "We'll find out once he's healed. We won't know until he reports his memories to us."

Appule nodded. "Shall I prepare a rejuvenation chamber for him?"

"Yes."

A few minutes later Vegeta was in the rejuvenation tank, hooked up to the breathing tube and electrodes to measure his vitals. Malaka entered the code to fill it with synthetic saiyan DNA and watched the blue-green viscous fluid fill the tank. It would take at least a few hours for the saiyan to be fully healed of all his injuries and the operation. Until then, he could only hope the experiment was successful. Either way, he would report to Frieza that he was finished and waiting for Vegeta to recover so he could check if it was effective or not.

Forcing back his fear, Malaka went to Frieza's throne room to update his master on the progress of the saiyan prince. He was met at the doors by the two guards, but was allowed in shortly. He hurried inside and knelt down before the galactic overlord.

"What is your report, Malaka?" Frieza asked, for once truly interested in his subject's news.

"Lord Frieza, I have performed an operation on Vegeta that should keep him from accessing his memories. I have also tried to ensure those memories will not be permanently lost, only made irretrievable until another operation is done to reverse it. I will not know how successful the operation was until he has regained consciousness."

"And if it didn't work?"

"I will try again, my Lord. I will find a way to do as you have asked."

"Very well. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, Lord Frieza." Malaka rose to his feet and dashed out of the throne room and back to the medical bay. He stopped at Vegeta's rejuvenation chamber and checked his vitals. All the readouts were promising. He would be fully recovered in four and a half hours. It was a long time to wait and see if he could remember his "pack," but there was little else the doctor could do to speed the healing process.

'I really am sorry to do this to you, Vegeta. It is unfortunate that you ever formed attachments to other beings. You should have known better.'

The next four and a half hours crawled by. During that time every doctor and scientist on the ship had learned of the experiment done to the monkey prince and they were gathered in the medical bay to hear about the success or failure of the operation first-hand. Frieza had even sent Zarbon to get word on the saiyan. His presence only served to make Malaka more nervous as he drained the fluid from the tank and opened the door to let Vegeta out.

The saiyan stepped out of the chamber and snatched the towel Malaka held out for him. He wrapped it around his waist and glared at all the aliens standing around watching him. He wasn't some sort of science experiment, what were they so interested in him for? He snarled and turned to Malaka. "What are they doing here?"

"Uh, well, you see, Vegeta, they're all here to see if you've recovered."

"Recovered from what? What am I doing here?"

Malaka frowned, at least as much as his beak would allow him to frown. "You don't remember anything that happened?"

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the doctor. "I was sent on a mission to purge planet 1084XR. What am I doing on Frieza's ship?"

"Is that the last thing you remember?" Malaka's eyes lit up with excitement. That was the mission he was on when he crash-landed on planet 1076XR.

"Is there anything else I should remember?" Vegeta asked, suspicion lowering his voice.

'Damn! Maybe I should have tried to give him false memories!' Malaka shrugged and pretended to be more interested in reading the saiyan's vitals readouts than answering his question. "Nothing other than the crash-landing you had. Nappa and Raditz brought you back in a coma. You've only just now regained consciousness. It's been over a year, Vegeta."

"What?" he shouted, panic rising in his chest, "A whole year? Damnit!"

Malaka nodded sadly and finished examining the readouts. "If you'll come with me, Vegeta, I need to run some tests to make sure you have fully recovered. I think you should have a brain scan just to be sure."

Vegeta followed the doctor to the brain scan machine and laid down. He mistook the snickers of the doctors as mockery for his year-long coma. A whole year! It was impossible! Saiyans were never disabled for that long! Not by some stupid crash-landing! It was humiliating. How could it have taken that long to recover, especially if he was in the rejuvenation chamber?

"I need you to try to remember anything that happened after you left for your last mission, Vegeta," Malaka ordered. "Do you remember anything about the planet? Or its people?"

Vegeta frantically searched through his memory bank for anything about 1084XR. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if there was an enormous void in his memory that would never be filled in. Nothing but darkness. All he could remember was what happened up until he entered stasis mode. He growled in frustration and embarrassment. Gone. It was gone.

"Nothing." But for some reason he thought he could smell cinnamon, sugar, tobacco, and strawberries. Not that he knew what any of those were. Strange.

On the brain scan Malaka could see one tiny area of Vegeta's brain that didn't light up with activity. The area he disconnected from all the rest. It lit up every few seconds independently of the neurons around it due to the implanted stimulation device. The experiment worked better than he ever could have imagined. Vegeta's memories were there, but he would never be able to find them.

Sad, really. But it saved his skin.

A/N: So several reviewers have mentioned it's confusing when I switch between scenes with Bulma and Vegeta, so I tried to separate them to make it clearer. Personally, I prefer not having any such divisions, but I put them there for your benefit. Let me know if it helps or if you don't like it. I know the procedure here is a bit of a stretch scientifically, but hey, that's what science fiction and suspended disbelief are for, right? Bet you didn't see it coming, in any case. :)