Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Attachments Detached ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

Vegeta walked the halls of the ship, finding the familiar surroundings not at all comforting, as something that acted like a home should have been. He felt as if at any second he would be attacked, either verbally or physically. That feeling made him look more like a wary, ragged predator than the purge had.

A frown was on his face and his eyes constantly roved around him. He didn't know whether it was more or less, but it was around three months. Frieza had made sure that Vegeta knew that nothing had changed in those three months and that he wasn't happy with the outcome of the purge.

Vegeta knew why Frieza was especially displeased about this mission. Kakarott had stayed asleep the entire purge, only waking when they arrived back on the ship. The expression on his face had been quite humorous as he tried to figure out how he had gone to sleep on the ship to wake up on the ship, everything in-between a blank.

Vegeta had told him to go to their training room, refusing to explain, and was about to follow him when a messenger told him Frieza requested his presence. Now he was walking to the training room with a leg that wanted to be carried in a limp, which he refused to do. There were too many watchful eyes that would see such weakness as a time to strike.

He wanted to curse, or at least scream wordlessly to the skies. His plans were ruined. He hadn't thought about them during the purge, but now that he was back in the thickness of Frieza's plots and schemes he was acutely reminded.

It had all seemed so perfect when that blue-haired human had mentioned working on projects for Frieza. It had turned even better when she had turned out to be a mechanical genius. He had planned on using her obvious liking for Kakarott to convince her to help him, but she had surprised him by agreeing solely on the fact that she trusted him.

Then the purge had been ordered and everything had gone awry from there. Even if the girl were still here; very unlikely the way his luck was turning, she wouldn't have time to do anything. He shook his head, eyes straying to his backside out of habit.

He would defeat Frieza, somehow, however long it took to do it. He would not spend the rest of life under him. He would not die a slave to the lizard.

Before he killed him, though, he planned on wringing a confession out of him. He wanted the lizard to know he had never tricked him with that meteor story, even if he had pulled the wool over Kakarott's eyes.

Vegeta paused suddenly as he caught a noise in the air, then mentally shrugged and continued on. He was, therefore, quite surprised when something with a light-build smacked into him.

He grabbed the figure out of instinct more than anything else. The form fought against the hold, not making a sound, but tearing and clawing at him as if he was going to eat them alive.

"Hold still!" He soon put both of his hands to use, grabbing the other arm so that he could see the wildly flinging form clearly, "Do you know who-" The words stuck in his throat as the definite smell filled his nose; the next thing hitting him the color blue.

Bulma looked up at Vegeta but did not seem to see him, for she still thrashed in his grip. Her blue eyes were shining pools of fright that struck him, their look alone almost making him release her. "Let me go! Please!" Despite the pleading tone, her feet were defiantly kicking his ankles as hard as they could.

Instead, he almost pulled her closer, his own eyes widened at the shock of seeing her and her not even recognizing him. It hadn't been that long. He took in the state of her clothes, which looked torn, skin clearly showing bruises and gashes that bled slowly. Her hair was disheveled. It looked as if she'd just barely gotten away from a pack of carnivores. Before he could ask her anything, not that he could decide on one question to ask, two other people he recognized just as clearly rounded the corner Bulma had sprinted into him from.

Both men skid to a halt at the sight of Vegeta holding Bulma, one grinning in triumph at their prey being caught, the other stepping forward to take charge as he usually did.

"Vegeta, we'll take it over from here. I'm sure Frieza will reward you highly for capturing her."

Vegeta looked doubly confused at Zarbon's words and looked down at the female he held in time to see her eyes roll to the back of her head, that look of fright with no recognition still on her face. He caught her as she fainted, that sight alone seeming totally out of character for her. He himself seemed to be out of character as he cradled her body and turned her away from Zarbon and Dodoria, face turned toward them to glare at first one, then the other, "What's going on?"

Zarbon's eyes narrowed and he took another step forward, "Vegeta, it is none of your concern. If Frieza sees fit to tell you, he will, but you'll have to take it up with him. We have been instructed to-capture the female. Now hand her over."

His voice was calm and slow, but Vegeta did not miss the pause. "What has she done?"

Zarbon shook his head, "Vegeta…this is not like you, to question so much. This is like one of your purge missions, just accept and do as your told."

Vegeta's stance changed minutely and Zarbon knew the Saiyan had made his decision against them. Mentioning the purge and then commanding obedience probably hadn't been a good move diplomatically speaking.

Zarbon motioned Dodoria discreetly with one hand and the pink alien nodded, stepping forward slightly. Vegeta's eyes flickered from one alien to the other, narrowed in concentration. He shifted slightly and put the girl carefully on the ground behind him, never moving his eyes from the two before him.

Zarbon made a slightly disappointed sigh, "Vegeta, you cannot defeat both of us. Even if you do, there's no way you can go against Lord Frieza." His golden eyes flickered momentarily behind Vegeta and he smirked. "There's no way you can win this, Vegeta, just hand over Bulma and we can all forget this."

Vegeta snorted, "That's not likely to happen, now is it?" He turned quickly and fired off a ki blast that knocked Kiwi, who had been sneaking up behind him, back into the hull of the ship.

Zarbon and Dodoria jumped in to attack as soon as Vegeta fired and he turned, cursing at the both of them, to try and stave off the double assault.

Zarbon swept in low, fist coming up for hook aimed for Vegeta's chest. Dodoria flanked the Saiyan, swooping in for a sidekick. Vegeta watched both attacks come at him, waiting, dark eyes searching for an elusive opening.

Luckily those eyes were trained to spot such openings and use them without conscious thought. As both men swooped in, Dodoria's attack was a split second earlier than Zarbon's. Vegeta twisted his body to the side, throwing his hip outward so that the kick missed him by a millimeter and ducking down, feeling the air from the other man's attack pass right over his head.

Vegeta allowed his fall to carry him to the ground, his chest brushing the floor before he pushed off with his hands, rearing his body up onto his hands and driving his feet back into the pink alien's gut, not waiting for the loss of breath from his enemy before spinning his body around, knees tucking into his stomach and leaping back upright and to the side, throwing an elbow into the gasping alien's face and knocking him off his feet.

Vegeta's quick movements saved him from Zarbon's second attack, which had been aimed for the Saiyan's back as he lay on the ground. Now Zarbon turned, growling, and charged the smaller man, trying to catch him off guard with an elbow to the side of the head.

Vegeta moved his head to the side, bringing an arm up at an angle so that the blow slid off it. Zarbon's momentum did not stop and he soon found himself as doubled-up as Dodoria had been as Vegeta's knee connected with his stomach.

Vegeta had to break off his advantage with Zarbon however, to turn quickly, not quite able to block the punishing hit that glanced off his side as Kiwi, having recovered, tried to get a disabling blow onto the distracted Prince's spine. Vegeta gritted his teeth from bruised ribs and took a step into Kiwi's attack area, grabbing both the surprised alien's ears and pulling his head into an upraised knee, feeling a crack as the purple nose broke.

He swung Kiwi around, still by the ears, and knocked him into Zarbon, throwing a sidekick at the rising Dodoria that skidded the blob back a few feet.

Vegeta stood with his feet slightly apart, breath heaving as he watched the three regroup before him. Zarbon still had that cocky assuredness, knowing their numbers gave them an advantage.

When Vegeta shifted slightly and his left knee buckled under him, he found yet another advantage. Plus Vegeta was favoring that side of his body, where Kiwi had hit him in the ribs. He pointed this out in hushed tones to the other two, who nodded. Their goal was to concentrate all their attacks on Vegeta's right side, and when he moved to block them, Zarbon would come into the left. Even if Vegeta did manage to stall them for a time, three against one would wear anyone down.

Vegeta glanced down momentarily at the unconscious girl, cursing the luck that had caused her to pass out. If he took the time to pick her up, he would lose the time to escape. He had to take out at least two of his attackers before he had any chance of relocating to a better fighting place. The corridor wasn't made for fights; the three could easily corner him, which it looked like they were trying to do. He couldn't even move far enough away from her to execute an all-out attack.

Zarbon stepped back, motioning both Kiwi and Dodoria forward. Both took the invitation, having a few bruises and bloody wounds to return to Vegeta. They phased out at the same time, and Vegeta quickly turned to his right, blocking one roundhouse to his head and ducking quickly below a reverse hook kick, trying to come up with an attack for at least one of them. He ended up connecting his fist with Kiwi's groin, smirking as the alien doubled over howling.

He leaned back on one hand to sweep out his legs and knock Dodoria from his feet, only to find that his attack on Kiwi had allowed Dodoria to launch his own attack.

Dodoria's fist connected with a sharp crack to his cheekbone, snapping it like a twig and sending him flying to stop when his back connected with a sickening thud with the steel wall. He screamed as he felt the leg Frieza had already punished fold underneath his body in an unnatural manner, the shooting pain telling him it was now broken at the knee.

His body tried to fall forward to hit the floor, but his treatment was not yet done. A sneering Zarbon hauled him up by his neck, chuckling as Vegeta clawed the hand that held him and kicked out with his good leg.

Zarbon took care of Vegeta's defiance with one well-placed hit to Vegeta's broken leg, laughing as Vegeta cringed in an effort to not cry out again, making a strangled sound instead. "I tried to warn you, but you had to be stubborn, not that Lord Frieza minds. He'll miss your purging efficiency to be sure, but a simple lie will keep that stupid companion of yours under his command. What shall it be now? An accident in the training room? Perhaps an embarrassing death, eh? More like you got a paper cut on paper that had been soaked in poison and died. I've heard that is the most humiliating death one can have."

Dodoria waddled up to join Zarbon in his taunts, "I don't know. I personally think giving him some of what Kiwi had and letting him dehydrate from it would be more degrading."

Both turned back to see Kiwi's reaction to this statement only to gape at the sight of Kakarott holding a dead Kiwi up by the throat, the alien's sightless eyes staring right through them until Kakarott threw the body to the side to slide down the hallway, broken neck folding up like an accordion when it stopped against a wall.

"What would Vegeta be doing with paper anyway? He doesn't read or write using paper. He uses those computers."

The careless way the words were spoken made Zarbon's jaw clench and he nodded at Dodoria, "Do worse to him than you did to Vegeta if you don't mind. I don't want him to be able to walk."

"But Lord Frieza-"

"-Will not tolerate failure! He just killed a member of Frieza's army, the penalty is death."

Dodoria nodded and turned to fully face the Saiyan, who didn't look to have moved from his position just in front of Bulma. Kakarott didn't know what was going on, but all he had to do was look at the struggling Vegeta still in Zarbon's grip to know that his ignorance did not matter.

As Dodoria phased out from in front of him to appear at his back, Kakarott casually twisted the front half of his body around and latched onto the alien's armor, throwing him back in front of him just hard enough to make him stumble. "I do train with Vegeta. Even he had nastier tricks than that!" He sounded disappointed, making Dodoria grit his teeth and mumble about 'stupid monkeys'.

Kakarott heard the low words and narrowed his eyes, "I hate that rumor!" Before Dodoria could ask what that had meant, Kakarott vanished from in front of him. Dodoria whirled around to be hauled up by the shoulder plates of his armor from the Saiyan above him and thrown headfirst into the wall right beside Zarbon, sliding down the wall unconscious.

Zarbon's eyes narrowed at Kakarott as he landed, not deigning to glance at the fallen Dodoria, "Your strategy has improved since last I saw you fight."

Kakarott looked shocked, "That was ten years ago, Zarbon! With the way Vegeta trained I had to improve or I'd be in the regen tank every night!"

Zarbon grunted and suddenly thrust a knee up and into Vegeta, allowing the Saiyan to drop down to the ground to cradle his stomach while trying to get off his broken leg at the same time. "Stay right there, Vegeta. I'll be with you in a second."

Vegeta growled, not able to do anything but what Zarbon had said. Besides, he wanted to take the distraction Kakarott was providing to get the girl out of the way. All it would take was Kakarott forgetting she was there and tripping over her.

Kakarott blocked the punches aimed liked bullets for his abdomen, midriff, and torso. The first two that got in, one to his gut and another below his shoulder blade, knocked him slightly askew, allowing Zarbon to snap off a jump crescent that whipped across his face, literally spinning him around.

Kakarott remembered this painful lesson from Vegeta and allowed the spin to carry him downwards, Zarbon's form flying over his bent body. Kakarott flipped backwards, doing a handstand momentarily, before landing on both feet, back to Zarbon and delivering a spinning hook kick that knocked the just turning alien off his feet.

Vegeta had finally gained his breath and managed to throw himself forward so that he was lying flat on his stomach, broken leg stretched out in a more comfortable position, though the twinges from it made him twitch irritably.

He painstakingly inched forward toward Bulma, wondering as he did so how exactly he was going to drag both her and him away from the battle.

After what seemed like an hour, he was close enough to grab a hold of Bulma's foot and shake it, falling back on trying to get her awake enough she could get herself away from the battle raging not far from her head.

A boot suddenly stomped down on Vegeta's hand, causing the Saiyan to arch his back, wordless shout filling the silence that was broken by a groan from the awakening Bulma.

Dodoria gave Vegeta's hand another good stomp, laughing as it broke beneath his weight and Vegeta's yell was voiced, which woke Bulma up completely. She half propped herself up, taking in the fight right above her head and the sight of the huge pink alien laughing as he crushed a smaller alien's hand beneath his heel. She couldn't see the dark-haired alien's features, as he seemed to be trying to muffle his screams in the floor. His hand was outstretched and barely touching her foot, but for what reason?

She immediately drew back her feet and scooted herself to the side, away from both confrontations.

Vegeta barely felt the movement beneath his crushed hand and raised his face to look with wavering sight at the obviously confused and frightened girl. He tried to form words, but it was at that moment that Dodoria's foot crashed down on his hand once again, leaving him screaming as the big, pink, monstrosity lumbered toward the cowering female, smirking evilly.

Vegeta suddenly choked back the rest of the scream and lunged forward with his good hand, brows drawn down and teeth gritted in a feral growl as he grasped Dodoria's foot around the ankle and pulled back as hard as he could.

Dodoria's mouth formed a neat 'O' as he slowly leaned forward, the pull on the foot toppling him down to hit the floor heavily, bouncing even, right at Bulma's feet. Bulma wasted no time in getting up and kicking the blubbery monster again and again, screaming her rage and fear at the monster who tried vainly to block her well-directed and forceful kicks.

Vegeta watched with half amusement as the tiny female kicked Dodoria into unconsciousness, vowing to ask her later how good it had felt. Right now though, he was awfully tired. He would just rest for a moment-

A/N: Ohhh, cliffie. This actually continued, but I had to break it up for-well I don't want the chapter that long and I don't want to catch up to myself. Anyways, I liked the three-against-one fight and I can't help but give Kiwi a degrading death. The guy was such a dork in the mangas! Oh no! Vegeta is unconscious and it's Zarbon against Kakarott! Whatever will happen? Well, you might know on Wednesday or something.

BTW, making a mailing list. Two of you are already on it. If you wish to be included, leave your email and I will contact you when I update. Nifty, huh? I joined the bandwagon!

Skittlekicks: Whoops. You were off. Didn't I say not to 'expect' anything? J/K Nope, no story-title relationship yet…. I threw you for a loop (does the Ginyu Happy Dance <_< O_o). You know, I thought about the IT, but I don't know…. It just didn't work. Besides, he's already done IT in one of my fics…. Any suggestions for getting it in there?

Moonlight152: Well, they did and she did but now they aren't. O_o Yeah.

Moonsaiyanprincess: That is what I try to do, get you to picture it, I mean. Well, more to come, but I love my angst…so be prepared okay? ^_^ You shouldn't want to kill me too badly….

Susan: O_o You certainly have a way with words…dabbing…. (chuckles Vegeta-style) It hasn't backfired yet….

Jadedbest: So, you love both of them I take it? (gg) Yeah, I like them too. Well, getting closer to the climaxes…um, not those kind, actually pretty far from those…. Anyways… (You remember that guy…? He's going away fall quarter. Surprisingly I find that I will miss him…a lot…. As much as Vegeta and Bulma missed each other and will be-oops (wicked grin) did I try to slip in a spoiler? Bad Kahlan!) Well, I guess this chapter proved that expected part…. At least you didn't make any guesses. I know the distraction thing. Friend is putting up a pool so I'm helping so I can swim in it. (gg) I'm so pragmatic!

Nicole del: Wow! Thank you! I think keeping them IC is very important. I got the inspiration for Vegeta scolding Kakarott from when he scolded Gohan. I could tell he cared there or he wouldn't have given the demi-Saiyan the time of day…. You know Vegeta. He can be-aggravating at times.