Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Lost in the Darkness ❯ The Newest Master ( Chapter 8 )

Lost in the Darkness

Part 8

The Newest Master

Disclaimer: This story is eight chapters long now. If you've read the previous chapters, I'm assuming you know the drill. Just in case, I don't own. Course, now you won't understand the story. ^_^

Vegita was lying on a cot in the dark and silent solitude prison when the door to the room swung open. "Get up." A rough voice ordered, followed closely by a whip crack. Vegita had his hands over his eyes to block out the painfully bright light. Groaning he managed to get to his feet and nearly collapsed. Hands reached out and grabbed him before he fell.

"Vegita?" Someone hissed. "Are you alive?"

Vegita slowly lowered his hands and opened his eyes. Radditz was helping him walk along the grounds. "Barely." He grunted.

"Good. We've been sold, us two. Terra hasn't, she's staying here." Radditz explained.

"Well, anything has to be better than here." Vegita groaned, leaning heavily on Radditz. His leg felt broken and he was still very weak. His ki collar was still turned up to high.

"I've heard it's worse. For the most part." Radditz continued down the path.

"Great." Vegita said sarcastically. "That's just perfect." Radditz only sighed.

"Hurry up! Get them on the rig!" Someone yelled. "I haven't got all day!" The two Saiya-Jins walked as fast as they could with Vegita in the state he was.

"You should go ahead of me." Vegita whispered to Radditz. "They're going to beat you if you don't."

"They'll beat me anyway." Radditz shook his head. "And you'd collapse. I'm not going to let them kill you. My King."

"King of what?" Vegita asked bitterly. "All I was king of is gone. I'm no King."

"Maybe you don't have a crown, or a throne, but you are the king of us." Radditz told him proudly. "And you know we'll serve you unto death."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. If we ever get out of here, I'll promote you."

"Grand. If we ever get out of here, I want a really good position. Let's go." They hobbled to the truck. Now the problem of how to get on the thing presented itself. Radditz frowned. He finally had to throw Vegita onto the truck before climbing on himself.

"That rather hurt." Vegita scowled, trying to sit up. Radditz murmured an apology and shrugged. There had been nothing else he could do. Before anything more could be said, the truck left.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

"Stand back! New slaves incoming!" A man yelled from the platform. Bulma stood back and watched them begin unloading. Three men, a woman, another man, and then she saw him. One of the last two slaves to get off the truck. A tall black haired slave was helping him.

~ It's him! The one who saved me! ~ Bulma gasped. Her jaw dropped. He was almost being carried and even from there she could see the whip cuts crisscrossing his back. The taller man jumped down from the truck and he sucked in a sharp breath to prevent himself from crying out. ~ Vegita, ~ She thought to herself, ~ what did they do to you? ~
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

"Ow." It was whispered, but the pain in his voice was easy to hear. Only Radditz heard it. Vegita gritted his teeth to prevent himself from crying out again. It hurt so bad. Every jar of the truck ripped at his half-healed wounds that had not been properly treated. They were already going to get infected. That alone might kill him now that he didn't have the energy to fight off infection.

"Sorry Vegita." Radditz whispered. "But there's nothing I can do."

"I know. Is there something I can bite? I'm going to break my teeth pretty soon." He replied to the other Saiya-Jin. Radditz shook his head no. "Damn." He grunted, surpressing another groan of pain as the truck lurched.

"Sorry." Radditz said. Vegita waved the apology away and braced himself for more pain.

When they got to the house, Radditz had to help him off the truck. "I've got to jump to get down." Radditz pointed out with a grimace. With Vegita's back, he was not going to have fun. Vegita groaned. They jumped out of the truck. When the two landed, Vegita almost screamed. He immediately let his breath out in a fairly loud hiss of pain.

"Now this is fun." He grumbled to Radditz under his breath. The other Saiya-Jin warrior merely snorted.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"Line up!" The man barked. The slaves got into a ragged line, uncertain of how to continue, with the exception of Vegita and Radditz who were the only Saiya-Jins in the group. They immediately snapped to attention as best they could with Radditz supporting most of Vegita's weight.

A man with short lavender hair stepped out of the building to inspect them. He was, obviously, their new master. He frowned when he reached Vegita. "Why did you buy this piece of junk? Get rid of him!" He snapped.

"Father! Don't! I'll take him! He can be my personal slave." Bulma yelled, running forward. Vegita's eyes widened as he recognized her.

"Now, Bulma, surely you can see how useless he is! He can barely stand!" Her father protested.

"But he's hurt! After he heals he'll be very strong! I'm sure he'll be useful then!" She snapped.

"Oh, fine! I don't care." He growled at her.

"Great!" She gave an enthusiastic smile. She then turned to Raddtiz. "Follow me, please."

"Hey!" Her father protested. "That one's still mine!"

"I'm only borrowing him for a minute. You don't want me to get all bloody do you?" She argued. Bulma knew quite well that Vegita couldn't walk and there was no way she could carry him. So, she used the best excuse she could think of.

Her father threw up his hands and sighed. "Fine! I don't care! He goes to the house anyway." He yelled.

"Thank you, Daddy." Bulma smiled. Her father scowled and mumbled unintelligible something to himself.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"You two do know how lucky you are, right?" Bulma asked. Radditz shook his head. Vegita had finally collapsed, unable to bear the pain, so Radditz was now carrying him. Currently the Hapless Saiya-Jin was unconscience, which was very fortunate for the other two.

Radditz wasn't walking next to Bulma, but behind to show he was of lower rank. The blue haired woman turned. "So, what did you do on your home planet?"

"I was a third class warrior and my buddy here was the Prince. He's the king now, though." Radditz replied softly.

"What happened to the king?"

"He killed the head over seer at the last plantation we were at. Wonderful performance but it was rather bloody." He grinned at the memory.

"How did he kill him?"

"Ripped out his throat." His tone was so indifferent that Bulma did a double take towards the man.

"You say it like it's nothing." She pointed out.

"I'm Saiya-Jin." Was his only reply.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

Kakarotto wandered around the house aimlessly with his brother. There was nothing they could do because they still weren't entirely sure of the rules yet and they didn't want to get in trouble. They rounded a corner and immediately ran into Mrs. Williams, knocking the poor woman's chair over and sending her tumbling.

"Yeouch!" She cried, rubbing her head. "That was rather painful."

"We're sorry! We're sorry! We didn't mean-! We won't do it again! Please, don't hurt Tousan! We're sorry!" They half-yelled, helping her back into her wheelchair.

"Woah! Who said anything about hurting anyone?" The woman protested, holding up her hands.

"That's what master Sharpener did when we did something bad." Turlis explained, stepping protectively in front of Kakarotto.

"Well, not here." She replied firmly. "No one's going to get hurt, especially not by me!"

"Sorry!" Turlis whispered.

"Don't apologize, dear, you didn't do anything. Accidents happen. That's part of being a kid." She held out her hands. "Now, who wants a ride? You'll have to help me in and out of this stupid thing, but…"

The two fifteen year old looked at each other. "Actually, Mrs. Williams, how would you like to go flying with us?"

"Flying? I don't have a plane…" She raised an eyebrow. "What did you neglect to tell me?"

The duo floated into the air a little ways and smiled. "So, you wanna go flying?"

"You bet, kiddos!" She grinned. "Let's blow this popsicle stand!"

The two Saiya-Jins laughed and Kakarotto lifted the crippled woman out of her wheelchair with ease. The woman gave a small smile, hinting to a thought that the twins knew they didn't want to know. Her grin grew even wider as Turlis launched out the window followed closely be Kakarotto.

The trio floated up as high s they dared for Mrs. Williams to still have enough oxygen to breath and so they would not be seen. Fluffy white clouds dotted the blue sky, while the warm sun smiled down at them. It was the best time the two had in a very, very long time.

"This is GREAT!" Mrs. Williams laughed in delight. "We'll have to do this again! It's just so fun!"

"Yeah. I always liked flying, but I guess we took it for granted when we were captured. The thing I most regretted was getting my wings clipped." Kakarotto admitted with a sigh.

"I would feel the same way." Mrs. Williams told him firmly. "In fact, that's what I thought when the doctors told me I would be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of my life, about forty years ago."

"How old were you?" Turlis turned to look at her, reaching down to skim the top of a cloud with one hand.

"I was about twenty-two." She sighed. "That almost killed me, but my husband, Kami rest his soul, told me that he still loved me and helped me get my life back together. He died about five years ago. That's when I started to buy slaves, giving them a second chance when every one else probably would have mistreated or killed them."

"Wow. So, you did all this for that?" Turlis smiled. "I'm really glad."

"You know, someone once told me that no matter how hard I tried, I could never save them all. Could never make a difference. The mistreated slaves, I mean, but I told him that every one I bought, I made a difference to. I guess that no one ever looks at it like that, but that's what kept me sane after my husband died."

"But why do you do it?" Kakarotto said, frowning. "What do you gain?"

"I get to see kids like you smile. That's all I ever needed in payment." She smiled again as the two Saiya-Jins blushed.

"Do you think we could ever gain our freedom?" Turlis asked, eyes wide.

"I don't know. Is that what you all want?" She touched his hand. "Life would be hard if you had you freedom."

"Yes, but we are Saiya-Jins, and Saiya-Jins don't do well in stone walls." Turlis shrugged.

"Hm." Was her only reply as they sped back towards the house.
~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~ ~~*~~

"I guess we're even now." Vegita croaked out to Bulma as she bent over his prone form.

"I don't know about even." The woman shook her head. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen. I think. Why?"

"For the record. And what do you mean you think?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Earth years and Vegita-sei years are different. Not by much, I admit, but Vegita-Sei has eight days in a week." The fallen King tried to sit up only to fall back, gasping. "Shit. My ribs are busted. I didn't know they were THAT bad. The ride over here must have made them worse."

"What did they DO to you?" The blue haired genius sighed.

"Whipped me and turned my ki collar up higher than the tallest mountain on this damn planet. What the hell does it look like?" He snapped. Then he winced, waiting for the hit. When it didn't come he risked a glance at the woman.

"What? They messed with the ki collar? Let me see it!" She demanded. The settings knob was in the back so the Saiya-Jin King groaned and tried to roll over. It wasn't going to happen.

"Well? Turn over." She said, rather irritated.

"I can't." He whispered.

"What?" She hadn't heard him.

"I can't!" He told her more loudly. The winced again as she raised her hand- only to rub her temples.

"Don't worry about it." She groaned, then helped him to sit up so she could reach the knob. She almost dropped the King when she saw it. "Holy hell." She gasped. It was turned up so high that she was amazed he wasn't dead.

With out thinking she twisted the knob. Vegita gave a cry of pain as she hit the highest point and the collar ripped into his neck. "Sorry! Sorry!" She cried, carefully laying him back down. He only sighed in relief. His wounds were already healing and his body was killing the infection.

"Thank you." The fallen King managed to sit up this time. His ribs still hurt, but they would be healed in no time now.

"Well, I can't take it off, but I can leave it on the highest setting it will allow. A shame you can't adjust these yourself, but there's not much I can do about that. But I will tell you that if you kill anyone, you'll be gone- and probably dead- before you can blink."

"Wonderful." He mumbled. "That's just PEACHY." Bulma smiled, shaking her head. Gently she pushed him back down. He gave a sudden cry- he was still incredibly weak- as he hit the table and blacked out.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Bulma looked at his inert form and sighed. The fallen King thrashed slightly despite being unconscience. Without thinking she gently ran her fingers lightly over his face. He gave a cry as they went over the faint scar running from his temple to his ear and tears filled her eyes.

"What ever happened before, Vegita, will not happen now. I will protect you from the horrors that you cannot prevent. This I swear." With that, she leaned over and kissed his forehead. Slowly she stood and slipped from the room. She paused at the doorway, turning back just long enough to whisper, "This I swear."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~

(A/N) All done! Smile! ^___^ So, um, I hope you liked, and please review! Flames are welcome, and Constructive criticism is much appreciated. Thanks!!! REVIEW! And thanks to those who have already reviewed. In fact, I like it so much, review again! ^_^

Ja ne!
~*~ Lady Foeseeker ~*~