Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Only the Weak ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Only the Weak

By Karete-chan

Chapter 9:

The large oval door slid back. Frieza stalked through into the room he used to take audience as behind him ash floated slowly down into a twisted mass of metal that had once been a chair in front of a console on the bridge. Around the bridge twenty various life-forms stood stock still as their Master walked away, not daring even to breathe while he was in such a foul temper.

The Tsiru-jin lord ignored his second in command as the man bowed to him. Instead he alighted into his hovering chair and accepted a glass of wine from the waiting Dodoria. His long thick tail swished angrily from side to side as he took an uncharacteristic gulp and scowled out through the window that gave a panoramic view of the rear of the ship.

"Incompetence," he growled. "I'm surrounded by it."

The two other men glanced at each other, wondering which would be the best way too broach the subject.

Dodoria stepped up behind the floating chair. "Master Frieza, this is an unwelcome turn of events."

"You think I don't know that?" Frieza hissed. "This is a disaster. Not only is there now a tech that is one-step ahead of my own, this is now the second time they have caused me to look a fool!" The crystal glass shattered in is hand. "Power wanes when it looks weak!"

The bloated pink man nodded hesitantly. "Y…yes Master Frieza. However, the Ginyus are awaiting your orders."

Frieza manoeuvred his chair over so that he faced the two he most trusted in his crew, despite the hate he knew the two held for each other. His red eyes narrowed and Dodoria shifted nervously on his short legs. Zarbon stood, impassive as always. Frieza tipped his head to the side. "Zarbon. I wish for you to convey a message to Vegeta." He brushed some of the spilt wine from his arm. "Tell him he has my permission to look for this Chikyuu-sei that he has told me about. However, he and his companions must detour to the Huptup system before they leave and take care of a small matter there. I will give him more details later. Dodoria. Tell the Ginyus they are on shore leave, planet Frieza no.79, until such time as I can get there and debrief them myself."

The two men gave a short bow. "As you wish, Master Frieza," they said in unison before turning and leaving the room.

"Zarbon," Frieza called as the two reached the door. The blue skinned man halted and stepped to the side to let Dodoria pass before turning back to his Lord. "I will see you back here later." There was a slight flickering in the other man's eyes.

"As you wish, Master Frieza," he replied.

Frieza smiled as his second in command swept out of the room.

~*~*~*~

The Rebels threw a party and Bulma made damn sure she took the opportunity to join in. Not one person on their ship was on duty. A stupid move by all accounts but with the shield in place they weren't in any immediate danger; unless someone ran right into them which was unlikely in this area of space. Once upon a time the shipping lane they were drifting in was heavily used, but since Frieza had destroyed Kopoto-sei over fifty years ago no one even came over into this part of space anymore. Lucky for the Chikyuu-jin rebels because the system they came from lay beyond the old location, far beyond the end of the shipping lane. And lucky for the rest of Chikyuu-sei because they had virtually no idea that all of this was going under their noses.

Bulma tossed back another shot of something-or-other, she had forgotten what it was about six of them ago, and waved merrily at Hontij who was on the other side of the room in the middle of a complicated looking dance that involved everybody facing the middle of the room and holding hands.

He waved back and promptly fell over, taking his dancing companions with him. Bulma laughed so hard she fell off her stool. Luckily someone's arms had been waiting for her and she cheered loudly, shouting her victory over the hard floor to the room.

"Someone's had a bit much haven't they?" Yamcha whispered into her ear.

She swung around and latched herself around his neck. "Not nearly enough!" she yelled, giggling, loud enough to deafen him.

He winced but didn't loosen his grip on her. "I think it's time you went to bed, babe. The rebels wouldn't like it if their favourite girl suddenly got a real bad case of amnesia."

Bulma laughed loudly. "A likely excuse! I know what you want!" she exclaimed, pushing away from him and twirling around. "You want to have sex!"

His cheeks flushed red as she announced his very thoughts to the entire ship. Guilt rose up inside him until he reminded himself of just why he hadn't been joining in the festivities as much as the others. Her safety had to come first and judging by some of the looks she had been getting throughout the boisterous celebrations he was glad that one of them was not drunk.

Sweeping her up into his arms he carried her from the room. Several people called out unsavoury things as they went and she waved merrily at them over his shoulder. Yamcha rolled his eyes and prayed for the day he could set foot on Chikyuu-sei again as the bar doors slid shut behind them.

~*~*~*~

It seemed that the cargo hold was becoming a favourite hang out for Saiya-jins, OneBlack mused as she stacked supplies into their designated areas. Radditz was down here again, sitting on a crate and brooding. He'd been doing it for the past two hours. She knew, because she'd been there for the last four and would probably still be there when he left.

She hefted the crate she was carrying over to the next platform, leaving grey handprints in her wake. The other slaves glared at her, as per usual, and she ignored them, pushing their crates aside to make room for her own.

As she wrenched the lid off her eye began to itch again. Thinking it was her hair she brushed a few of the loose strands out of the way. It didn't help and the itch became a low burning sensation. She rubbed her eye with the back of her grubby hand but to no avail; the burning itch simply became worse. Unpacking the crate with one hand, she scratched her itch in earnest, mindful of opening up the recently healed wound. Idly she wondered what the scar would look like when and if she ever washed her face again. Would it look ugly and red, as it was now, forever? Or would it fade? She shook her head. What useless thoughts those were. She had been lucky enough not to lose the eye in the first place. A simple scar was worth her sight any day of the week in her book.

For the next half hour she silently went about her duties, until she tripped and went sprawling on her face. The small crate she had been carrying broke as it hit the hard metal floor and its contents and the hard yet brittle plastic it was made of spilled in every direction. Laughter filled with mirth met her ears and she looked up to see two other slaves standing over her. Her eyes narrowed in anger.

"Oh look," one said scornfully. "It's angry. Did we hurt your feelings, animal?"

The woman joined in. "Aw diddums fell over. What a pity." They laughed again.

OneBlack glared up at them. She had never been one to take shit from people and it had taken most of her precarious control over her temper to keep her alive until now. But looking up at the ugly and stupid faces above her, she snapped.

Launching herself from the ground she lunged at the one who was bent over her, landing a solid punch on his jaw. She had never been a weak girl but the man went down more from surprise than anything else. The woman was so startled she didn't react until OneBlack had a fist full of her short pink hair. She swung the woman around and smashed her into a pile of crates. Coming out of his daze the man reached out and grabbed her ankle, wrenching it out from under her. As she fell, OneBlack lashed out with her fist and once again connected. The man swore and backhanded her across the face. Stunned, she saw that he was standing above her and she lifted her foot, kicking him square in the groin. He went down again. Scrambling to her feet she began kicking him. Over and over, a guttural scream coming from her mouth, one that six months ago she never would have believed could come from her.

Suddenly she was pulled away and the unfamiliar sensation of not having her feet on the floor quieted her cry. Someone shook her roughly.

"Can't a body get any peace and quiet around here?" it growled.

The man on the floor looked up at her captor and his face froze somewhere between a grimace and terror. Stumbling, he got painfully to his feet, muttering apologies in gibberish and backed slowly away.

OneBlack felt her body bend as the larger person holding her bent over to better see the other slave on the floor. "Boo," the voice holding her said. The two slaves ran.

By this time OneBlack had her eyes squeezed tightly shut and was trembling. Whoever this was, and she had a pretty good idea who, they were going to kill her. To her surprise she felt her feet touch the floor again.

"I have to admit, for a filthy, smelly thing, you've sure got guts."

Trembling she turned, head bowed and fixed her eyes upon the ground. The tips of two blue and tan boots were all she could see on the grey metal floor, that and the very tips of long black hair. A large hand came up and pulled her chin up so she faced him.

Radditz grinned down at the slave as she trembled. Her eyes were drawn to the sharp incisors that weren't quite hidden by his lips. He grinned wider and dropped his hand. "You think you're clever don't you?" he asked chuckling. "You and your little friend. Young females don't often last as long as the two of you."

Her eyes went wide.

He laughed at her astonishment and she took the chance to take a step back. "Yeah, I know your secret. Even though all that muck I can still smell the real you." He poked her shoulder, emphasising his last word. He took a deep breath. "Only a few years out of girlhood too. A pity really." When she said nothing and lowered her head again, he sighed. "Word of advice girl. If you want to stay alive, don't start any of that lame fighting crap in front of Nappa." He turned and walked away.

OneBlack stared after him as he disappeared through a doorway on the other side of the cargo bay and for some time after. Then slowly she shook herself free of her shock and began cleaning up the mess scattered on the cold metal floor.

~*~*~*~

Vegeta limped out of Frieza's quarters holding his broken left arm to his side. Blood poured from his nose and dripped onto his white boots as he muttered curses in the dying Saiya-jin language. The white freak had thankfully been in a good mood tonight; otherwise he wouldn't be walking away from the past two hours. On the other hand if he had blacked out, there was a small chance that he wouldn't have remembered what had happened. He cursed again and continued limping down the hall.

He turned a corner and walked straight into someone. The impact jarred his injured leg and he stumbled backward, grunting as he flung out his broken arm to steady himself. Pain ripped up his arm.

"Enjoy yourself monkey?" A smooth voice asked.

Vegeta looked up expecting to see laughter and mirth in Zarbon's eyes. But the other man held no expression in his face whatsoever.

Vegeta smirked to hide his disgust at running into him. "Why? Jealous?"

Anger flickered across blue features and the Saiya-jin Prince realised suddenly that Frieza's second in command was standing defensively, his arms crossed over his chest, as if expecting Vegeta to attack. "By all means, little Prince, have your fill. I will not stop you."

The Saiya-jin Prince scowled, wishing he were strong enough to live up to the other man's expectations and hurt the taller and more powerfully built soldier. "You bastard. I…"

Zarbon scowled suddenly and his eyes narrowed as if he had just noticed the extent of Vegeta's injuries. Waving a hand impatiently at the angry Prince the blue skinned man walked past him, tossing his braid over his shoulder. "Save it Vegeta. I don't have the time to listen to your incessant whining." He disappeared around the corner.

Vegeta glared after his back for a long while before limping off to the med-bay. He was met by a couple of Untouchables and he wondered vaguely how they had known he would be there as they helped him remove his body suit, without further injury to his arm.

"My lord," the one with short purple hair asked. "Would like for us to stay and ensure your safe awakening?"

Vegeta scowled at her. "As always my answer is no."

She smiled at him, but no warmth was in her eyes. "As always, the next time you come in, I will ask." She and her companion helped him into a tank and watched silently as the healing liquid rose up around the Saiya-jin Prince.

"Filthy monkey," the other spat as Vegeta lost conciousness.

~*~*~*~

Hontij was quite thankful that alcohol only had an effect upon his race for as long as they wanted it to. Right now he was sure that he was one of a very few who had the working mental capacity to attend to the ships controls. And that was a good thing because a Maiyosh-jin freighter was trying to hail them over the secure lines they had set up before they had left Chikyuu-sei.

Sweeping his long red hair over his shoulder he hit `receive' and the console in front of him was immediately filled with the angry face of Ophis, his Maiyosh-jin contact.

"Hontij! I've been trying to hail you for hours! What in the universe have you been doing?" His red face became redder as Hontij smiled smugly at him.

"Doing, Ophis? We have been celebrating."

"Celebrating?!" the Maiyosh-jin roared. "We're in the middle of a rebellion that is teetering dangerously on the loosing side and you are celebrating?!"

"Ophis, please, you're getting spittle all over your console screen," Hontij replied, barely keeping his laughter in check.

"You think I care, you mad son-of-a-guttlefish?!" Ophis glared at his friend. "You were supposed to rendezvous with us hours ago. Where are you?"

Hontij made a show of checking his monitor. "Right where we are supposed to be."

The Maiyosh-jin's eyes almost popped out of his head in anger. Hontij watched as the man took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Check again Hontij," he said more calmly. You are not on our scanners."

"Of course not." He reached over and flicked a switch. "How about now?" he asked lightly.

Ophis was no longer glaring at him. The man's eyes were staring widely at something off screen. "How in the universe…why didn't our proximity alarms go off?" he asked, running a hand through his short white hair his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

Hontij sighed and buried his head in his hands. Did nothing ever impress a Maiyosh-jin? "By the calculations shown here we are precisely twenty centimetres from the edge of your proximity field," he muttered just loud enough for his friend to hear.

"Impressive."

Hontij grinned and lifted his head.

"So, do we expect a visit?"

Hontij paused. "We may have to wait."

"Why?" Ophis frowned.

"They may not wake up for a while."

Ophis pinched the bridge of his nose again.

~*~*~*~

Gokou frowned as he looked up into the night sky. The expression was almost alien to his usually cheery face but something had called him out here and he was determined to find out what it was even if it took the whole night, even if it meant facing ChiChi's wrath in the morning.

He sighed and broke his concentration as a little breeze decided to have some fun with his unruly hair. So many things were going on. Not that his life had ever been what anyone would call normal but now with Bulma hanging around with some really strange characters - aliens no less! - everything seemed to be going…wrong.

He returned his gaze to the sky. If he concentrated hard enough he could just feel them flickering on the edges of his senses. Bulma, Yamcha, the friend of Bulma's dad…they were all there, yet something tugged in his head, something telling him that they wouldn't be completely safe unless he was with them or they had put their feet back down on Chikyuu-sei soil.

And then there was the other thing. It didn't happen often, but every now and again he would receive an overwhelming feeling of malice it was very far away and it worried him that something was so powerful as to project their intentions that far. Not many things scared him, apart for ChiChi's frying pan, but this was…

"Dad?"

Gokou jerked as the soft little voice hit his ears and lost his train of thought.

Gohan climbed slowly over the side of the cliff his father was sitting on giving him a big grin as he did so.

"Whatcha doin' dad?" he asked.

Gokou grinned back. "Your mum will take a pot to my head for letting you speak like that Gohan."

The young child grinned, his tail sweeping the air behind him. "Sorry. What are you doing dad?" he asked again as Gokou ruffled his hair.

"Just thinking." He stood up. "C'mon, let's get back before your mum notices you're missing or I'll get something worse than a pot."

Gohan giggled and fisted his small hands in his father's gi as Gokou launched himself into the air. The warm night wind whistled around them as the speck that was their home grew steadily larger. Gokou was relieved to see that the lights were still out, meaning that ChiChi hadn't woken up.

He touched down on the grass in their backyard and let Gohan go ahead of him to open the door. He stopped before stepping over the threshold and turned to look up at the sky again. It seemed peaceful, especially looking at it through the swaying braches of familiar trees. He sighed. Come home safe friends. He stepped inside.

~*~*~*~

High above the sleeping half of Chikyuu-sei, an old and wizened face smiled. "So, finally cottoned on have you? It's about time." He chuckled and thumped his heavy staff against the ground. "Hear that Mr. Popo? The boy has begun to work it out."

The smaller but fatter figure beside him smiled.

Kami thumped the staff against the tiled floor of his floating island again. "He still needs time though. So, let's hope my other half doesn't go off on another tangent from the one he's started."

Mr. Popo cleared his throat. "Will Piccolo ever be trustworthy Kami-sama?"

"Hmm," the old man mused, his green antennas bouncing forward, "it will depend."

"On what?"

The old man looked up at the night sky. "I am not sure yet."

Author's note: Dear god…Feburary? Has it been that long? Well, to all of you who are still reading this…I'm really sorry!

And especially to Star (my No.1 fan - well of this fic anyway), you've been on my back about this for ages…but it's your fault for starting that RPG! Mwah hahaha!

Ahem, yes, well, I'll try to be a little quicker next time. Less than six months anyway ^.^ Hope you're all enjoying it so far.