Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Full Spectrum ❯ Best Laid Plans ( Chapter 11 )

Special thanks to Prince's Jewel for beta reading this for me.*blah* = italics

Full Spectrum

By Ginia

Part 11
Best Laid Plans

Too Slow. He had reacted Too Damn Slow. Before the sting of the needle had fully registered, Vegeta had already backhanded Amberge away from him, but by then it was too late.

Pulling the empty syringe from his arm, Vegeta’s furious glare returned to the smug face of Commander Brietoth, his growl of fury the only sound in the room. He wanted to rip that look off her face and shred the flesh that wrongfully bore his mark. He desperately needed to tear this ship apart to learn the truth about the location and condition of his missing family. Beyond that… beyond that, the prince of a vanquished people could not even consider - not yet.

But what Vegeta wanted meant nothing now because he had let himself be distracted by that monstrous bitch.

Vegeta was surprised to realize that he was no longer standing on his own, but leaning heavily on the wall behind him as the strong sedative sped through his system. With clouded thoughts, Vegeta’s eyes once more settled upon the mark scarring Brietoth’s neck. It *could not* have happened. Even if she had come upon him in his sleep, *influencing him* as he slept - her stench should have driven him away from her.

The ‘almost’ memory of bitter blood filling his mouth briefly brought his fading thoughts back into focus. Earlier, he had been awakened not by her repugnant stench, but by her touch. How was that possible? He finally realized what was wrong with the entire picture. Brietoth’s scent was undetectable.

Suddenly Brietoth's face was hovering mere inches from his own as he lay sprawled at the base of the wall. He forced the question to his lips, barely whispering. “W-hy… why don’t you stink?”

“Really Vegeta! Such a rude question!” laughed Brietoth before answering in a soft seductive voice. “You witnessed how I dealt with Amberge’s little reaction to my scent, don’t you forgotten? I dealt with your rather negative reaction the same way. I merely blocked the specific receptors that allowed you to notice my scent.” She paused, stroking Vegeta’s soft tail.

“Vegeta? Can you even hear me, little prince?”

The drone of Brietoth’s voice had become an annoying hum circling around the drugged Saiyan. Her words tumbled without resistance into his subconscious mind, fodder for later examination. As Vegeta succumbed to the darkness, his last impressions were the sight of his mark on the creature’s neck and the smooth stroke of her fingers along his tail. * * * * * * * * *

Sitting before a large panel in her Observation Center, Brietoth was quite pleased with her evening’s efforts. “There now, my little prince,” she murmured as she finished making the adjustments on the master control to Vegeta’s implants. “This should make your implants much more effective and put off the need for new implants until you achieve at least a 25% increase in your measurable energy… and by then,” she laughed, “you will already have been completely conditioned and new implants will no longer be necessary!”

Brietoth was still smiling as she left her Observation Center, but her mood quickly soured as she approached the ship’s main bridge. How had those insignificant humans managed to board her ship, ransack the OC - her private sanctum, and *then* appropriate the hybrid Saiyan infant and Vegeta’s human mate? It should have been impossible. Had the crewmen who guarded the entrance not been dead already, she would have killed them herself.

Dead. Four of her crew of eighteen were dead, with two more in critical condition. *Someone *was going to pay for this affront - and Brietoth would start with that human bitch and anyone foolish enough to cluster around her at the remaining Saiyan’s mountain home. Although she usually opted to collect her specimens with minimal damage to surrounding life forms, these obnoxious creatures had lost the privilege of that particular courtesy.

Ordering her shuttle readied for immediate departure, Brietoth planned out the steps of her little expedition. The gas she intended to saturate the area with would knock out the adult Saiyan for about 20 to 30 minutes. Of course that strong a dose would also most certainly kill those humans who were currently clustered around him. The older half-breed might survive… the infant probably not.

'No matter,' she mused. She could always “breed” additional full-blooded Saiyans from the genetic material *donated* by the two males…

Already savoring her revenge, as well as anticipating the pleasure of *personally* collecting that particular specimen from the taller Saiyan, Brietoth headed out for Goku’s isolated home in the mountains. * * * * * * * * *

The capsule packs Krillin had collected from Bulma’s lab had allowed her to spend the hours since her rescue focusing on the items liberated from Brietoth’s ship.

Current results? Genius or not, even Bulma needed more than these odds and ends to make real progress. She needed more information but at the moment she was the only available source.

“OK then… Lets start with what I’m sure of,” Bulma began, speaking out loud. “Vegeta had some sort of devices surgically implanted along his spine and at the base of his skull. Their purpose was to allow Brietoth to eventually gain full control over him.”

Her voice broke the silence and drew the gathering of friends from their private brooding to hear what she had to say. “Now, Brietoth told me that her control was still incomplete but Vegeta had insisted that Brietoth had not actually ‘made’ him hurt me-”

“What!”
“He’s the one who hurt you!?”
“You never said Vegeta was the one who beat you!”
The shocked and angry friends tried to interrupt but Bulma ignored them. She knew she had to work through this, in order to help both herself and her friends understand what they were up against.

“-BUT-” Bulma continued determinedly, “she obviously had enough control with those implants to make him ‘*unaware*’ that he was hurting me, that his actions even *could* hurt me. She took away his self-control and used that against him. I saw his eyes when she released him. When he realized…” Bulma shuddered. “And she’d managed all that after only having her hands on Vegeta for a few hours! How much control will she have over Vegeta now, after she’s had all this time for her cruel experiments?”

Turning her suddenly brimming eyes to Goku, Bulma begged, “Goku! We have to go back for him *now*!”

“Bulma’s right, guys.” Goku looked at the twilight flight of bats as they dipped and dived around his home. “We can’t wait any longer. If Vegeta could have gotten out on his own - he would have done so by now.”

“So we go back and rescue him from his own past?” snapped Yamcha. “He brought all this down on himself - and onto Bulma and Trunks, too!”

“You’re wrong, Yamcha. No matter what he did in his past, not even Vegeta deserves what’s happening to him in that lab," whispered Tien before lifting his face to the gathered friends. “We need to hurry - that ship wasn’t damaged badly enough to keep them grounded much longer, and if they leave the planet with Vegeta…”

Krillin quietly filled in the blank, “Then we would never get him back and who knows what this Brietoth person would do if she really did have Vegeta completely under her control. Things could be even worse than when Frieza was around.”

Visions of Vegeta’s ever-increasing power level and his lethal potential were all too clear in everyone’s mind.

“I don’t think it would ever come to that,” murmured Goku. “Vegeta would rather die fighting than be controlled like that.”

“Just get him out and I’ll find a way to undo whatever has been done to him!! I’ll find a way… Please - help him, help me.” As Bulma finally broke down and wept, Chichi wrapped her arms around her friend. She didn’t care a bit for Vegeta but - for Bulma’s sake - she hoped he could be saved. * * * * * * * * *

As required by the Commander, Prince Vegeta would have round-the-clock attention - it just wasn’t going to be him. Otherwise ready to retire for the night, Amberge lingered in the lab. He had expected Vegeta to rouse long before now and wanted to be certain the IV feeding the sedative into the Saiyan’s body was properly set before turning guard duty over to the assigned crewman.

Amberge watched Vegeta as he lay strapped to the examination table; the monitors indicated yet another dream had begun. Although extremely active, all the readings were originating in the areas of the brain dominated by the subconscious. As soon as any conscious activity began to register, Amberge was ready to make the necessary adjustments to ensure the feisty Saiyan’s quiet slumber would continue until the commander was once again ready for him.

While Vegeta’s sleep may have been quiet, it was far from peaceful. Without injuries or physical pain as a distraction, the enforced slumber was allowing the instinct-driven Saiyan more control over his subconscious mind than Amberge could have imagined.

Lacking the fine-tuning of meditation, the focus of Vegeta’s dreamlike thoughts would drift until an effort was made to lock one in place. The first image to lock was the bite mark on Brietoth’s neck, which expanded to his intimate encounter with the creature. Steadily the sordid details were stripped of their protective clouds and exposed to his questing mind. Unable to escape the reality of that event, Vegeta worked to redirect his thoughts to other areas of far greater significance.

Soon the early morning events began to play and replay in Vegeta’s mind. Gaps were steadily filled in and time sequences corrected. Gradually all events, including his time on Brietoth’s rack, were painfully clear. The only parts missing were those that occurred while Vegeta was completely unconscious, but even then, there were some clues to the truth - however clouded in deceit they were. Despite what Brietoth had said, Vegeta was certain that there had been no outright attack; the humans had simply slipped aboard - therefore Bulma could not have been killed in such an attack… No, wait, Brietoth had said Bulma died during the explosions - and there were explosions… but they happened later…

The ship's reaction to the invasion had not begun until after the beginning of his second session on Brietoth’s rack - even that cue ball Krillin should have been able to find the woman and brat with that much time. So the alarms must have sounded as they attempted their escape or after the captives were discovered missing…

Yet Brietoth had insisted that the woman was dead and the brat under high security. What could she hope to gain by lying about such a point? What if Bulma actually had been killed sometime during the escape - could that be the scrape of truth in Brietoth’s web of lies? And what of the boy…

Slight tremors began to run across Vegeta’s muscular form as his mind lost its tenuous control of thought and trapped itself in the vicious cycle of the unanswerable "What if's". As the drug slowly left his system, his body began to struggle towards awareness, desperate to escape from the pain now rampant in his subconscious thoughts. Unfortunately Amberge was standing ready and took immediate action to return Vegeta to a much deeper sleep.

Adjusting the flow of IV to maintain this new level - slightly higher than actually necessary - Amberge was satisfied. Seeing that all the readings were steady, Amberge was finally prepared to turn his sleeping charge over to the custody of the guards for the night. The Saiyan would cause no trouble now. * * * * * * * * *

With the decision to return made, serious planning had to be done. It was quickly recognized that Bulma, Trunks, and Chichi would be easy targets if Goku and the others simply left them sitting where they were. Bulma’s suggestion of the bunker under Capsule Corp was soon accepted as a far more secure location for the more vulnerable family members to wait.

Not wanting to tip their hand to any observers, Yamcha was dispatched to move Professor and Mrs. Briefs to the protection of the bunker and wait for Goku’s instant transmission arrival with the noncombatants. Once they were safely taken care of, the Z-Force warriors would move with Goku to Brietoth’s ship, using the location of Vegeta’s last power-up as Goku’s point of focus.

Chichi was still collecting ‘essentials’ and complaining about being forced from her home when Piccolo jerked to attention from his relaxed position against the wall, a faint vibration beginning to make his sensitive ears buzz.

“Goku! We’re out of time!” roared Piccolo, grabbing Bulma and Gohan while moving towards Goku. Within seconds everyone was in contact with Goku and ready for the transfer. * * * * * * * * *

Amberge’s head had barely touched the pillow when the first alarm sounded. He was up immediately and running towards the lab and the Saiyan. It didn’t matter whether the creature was actually trying to escape or if the ship was once again under attack - plans had already been made for this potential situation and the Saiyan was his prime responsibility. Nothing would be allowed to interfere… he would not fail his Commander… * * * * * * * * * End Part 11