Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Only the Weak ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Only the Weak

 

By Karete-chan

 

Chapter 10:

 

It was near dusk when Piccolo looked up into the sky and saw nothing. A tingling on the edge of his senses caused him to narrow his eyes. Something was there but for some reason his eyes could not see it. He shifted his feet in the dirt of the mesa that overlooked West City and the dome of Capsule Corp. gleamed in the fading light…before it flickered like someone had dropped a pebble in water.

The ridge of Piccolo's eye rose. That was definitely not normal. Suddenly the landing pad of Capsule Corp. was a whirl with dust and his keen ears picked up the distinct sound of metal hitting concrete.

The corners of his mouth twitched. Hmm. You're smarter than I gave you credit for woman.

He waited as the dust settled, keeping tabs on both the life forces in and around the domed building and that of the fast approaching Gokou from the other side of the city. The man was dragging the kid along as well.

People were exiting the ship, suddenly appearing ten feet in the air and walking down invisible steps. He could have moved closer, heard more clearly what they were talking about, but chose not to move. Gokou did not need to know he was here at this moment, despite the uneasy sense of truce that had formed between the two.

As Bulma and the fool Yamcha emerged from the ship Gokou set foot on the tarmac and she rushed over to him, babbling about all the things she had seen.

Piccolo stayed where he was until he had the information he needed then moved off into the countryside where rasping human voices couldn't reach his ears. He felt Gokou's chi flare behind him as the man finally noticed his presence. Not that it mattered. None of them had anything to worry about from him for the moment.

The wind picked up the end of his cape and tossed it around as he flew the contours of his face set in a frown. This was not good. Despite the fact that the woman seemed to believe that she had given these `Ginyus' the slip, the soft warnings that the ebony skinned man had muttered to her as she left the ship made it all to clear to him that this out of the way, backwards little planet would not have long to wait before it was found.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Zarbon paced in his quarters. It seemed like it was beginning to be a favourite pastime for him.

He had been planning to kill her. Again. But this time when she had turned up, and he had made sure it was her, she had been escorted by a friend. And this one was different again from the one that had come before. He watched as they walked together, across his quarters to the slave's stool, which was next to his chair. The slave sat down, breathing hard. Her friend turned and bowed.

“Hurry up and get out of my sight,” he said, trying to inflict his voice with as much annoyance as he could muster.

The friend jumped, bowed again and hastily turned away. He frowned even as curiosity tugged at him. Who are these slaves? Why haven't they been punished for this? Nothing like them had been seen on the ship for many years. In fact he couldn't exactly remember anything quite as strange. There had been slaves who tried to deal their way out, slaves who had thought it best to just move up in the world by becoming whores, who at least got fed better, or those who had pledged their allegiance to Frieza and died as cannon fodder. But never ones who had lived covered in dirt. He shrugged off these thoughts as he strode over to his chair and sat down. He knew he wouldn't kill her now. At least, not until he had figured out exactly what she was trying to prove.

She cringed away from him as he settled in his chair.

He smirked. Still scared. “Get on with it.”

She nodded and silently began her work.

 

~*~*~*~

 

For twenty minutes solid she did not pause. Her hands were aching towards the end but she dared not stop until he asked. Not for the first time did her mind wander and ask why he felt that it was better to call her instead of simply using one of the healing tanks she had heard about. Her thoughts drifted to Ay...no, to FourGrey. She berated herself silently. She had to remember to use the stupid names the other slaves had given them. Then if she ever was forced to speak, the name would come to her lips like second nature and the bastards on this ship would never know who they truly were. Although to never hear her name spoken aloud again...the thought sent chills down her spine.

But, she had wandered into self-pity again and she had no right. Not when there were others far worse off than her. FourGrey...she might never be able to do anything than walk slowly down a street ever again. It was a miracle that she was still alive, that she had survived her horrendous beating and that they had not 'put her down' after she had recovered and found that she was not fast or strong enough to do most of the work required of Frieza's slaves. Only because Petak had taken pity on them did she now spend her days mending clothes. And the girl would be in pain tonight, after having to help her all the way to the officers' quarters.

Zarbon jerked his arm away from her suddenly, breaking the pattern of thoughts running through her mind. She recovered in time to save herself from toppling off her stool and waited until he had swept into his bedchambers before leaving her post and depositing the now filthy towel in the laundry.

 

~*~*~*~

 

As he stood silently on the other side of his bedchamber door, Zarbon brooded. He flexed his arm, nodding to himself when the muscles did not ache in protest for once. The girl, despite her filthy state and his reluctance to admit it, was a valuable resource to him. She prevented, in some small way, his dependence on Frieza, even if it was just through the lessened use of the medical facilities.

He frowned at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall across the room and wondered what the best way of gathering information about her was. And her friends. He knew that there were definitely at least three of them but it seemed only the gods knew how many were taking to the dirt covered look. Perhaps they were starting a new fashion trend for slaves. He remembered the time they had all taken a liking to doing everything in long sweeping bows. Frieza had tolerated it until one had knocked over a passing Untouchable and in doing so spilt his precious wine across a corridor floor. He grimaced, remembering how easily the wine had been cleaned up in comparison.

He spun around, cape flowing behind him, and walked back into the main room.

The slave froze when she saw him; paused in her hesitant walk towards the outer door, her eyes wide with fear. The sudden terror on her face threw him for a minute before he realised that once she had finished he usually just let her leave. She probably thought she had done something terribly wrong.

"Get out already," he growled, his fleeting sympathy for her fear melting away as quickly as it had come. He didn't care to let her feel even the tiniest bit secure in his presence.

She gave a shaky bowing nod as the fear in her eyes abated a little and resumed walking.

Her first step almost sent her sprawling across his floor. Her leg shook violently as she placed the weight on it, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, sucking in air in a shaky gasp. She stood so for another few seconds before she tried again.

A delicate eyebrow rose as he watched her attempt another step, her eyes flicked in fear towards him, probably because she thought she was not moving fast enough. Zarbon confirmed his suspicion as she took two quick steps, not quite managing to bite back a cry of agony and crumpled to the floor. Her hands went to her feet and hovered over them, obviously wanting to soothe the pain but at the same time not cause it to get worse. Her ragged breathing rasped harshly on his ears.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked, wishing to slate his curiosity, though the answer was easy enough to guess.

A shaking hand pointed to her feet and then made flicking motions back and forth through the air.

He understood the sorry attempt at communication but it didn't keep him from frowning. "I'm not in the mood for sign language. Use the mouth you were born with," he snapped.

One eye forced itself open to look at him and then quickly at the floor as she remembered her place. Her mouth opened and closed much like a fish, as if she couldn't find the words to express what she meant. A tear slipped down her cheek.

Anger filled him and he was about to step forward and strike her when her hand rose to her throat and she shook her head. That was much easier to understand. “You cannot speak.” She nodded.

Zarbon frowned. “Fine. Go back to your duties.” He strode past her and out into the corridor. It was time to speak to Petak.

 

~*~*~*~

 

After the disaster concerning the rebel spacecraft, the Ginyu Special Force headed back to their main base of operations, Planet Frieza No. 79. It was a full galaxy away from where they had been but as the Captain had put it; Frieza says, they jump.

Currently they were all stuck in orbit, waiting for clearance to land. They'd been waiting a week. None to subtly showing exactly how pissed off Frieza was with their failed mission. Not only that but they'd run out of chocolate bars, Guldo having cheated them out of the last of them when they played poker two days ago. Of course, having the time freeze ability was handy, especially when no one could accuse him of doing it, seeing as he never actually appeared to have moved from his seat.

The captain of their little ship entered the room and sighed heavily. "Sirs, Master Frieza has granted landing permission."

Four of them slumped in their seats. "Quit wasting time then," Ginyu barked, throwing the nearest thing to hand at the squat fish man. The small cube paperweight shattered as it hit the wall to the side of the ship's captain.

With a week behind him of such behaviour the man simply bowed and backed out of the room.

Jiece credited the guy for not flinching and glanced over at his captain. Bastard. Hope Frieza gives you what you deserve.

The red-skinned Ginyu was proud of his place in the Frieza's elite squad. His status was well known and no one would dare cross him, were he among his colleagues or otherwise. But it had been a difficult climb to get to were he was and he did not want to loose it simply because his Captain had taken an extreme disliking to him.

And he knew why.

Unlike many of the high ranked personnel that worked for Frieza, Jiece had been one of the few not taken because he was interesting, or because the rest of his race were destroyed but because his parents had thought it would be a good career move.

His father, a man high on the Maiyosh-jin council had packed him off when he was barely seven years of age to be trained in one of the harshest training camps in the Ice-jin Empire. Jiece had known even then that his father had just hoped that his son would be killed. Wild as a child and not particularly good at his studies, Jiece had been as disappointing as any Maiyosh-jin child could have been. And for a man in his father's position it had meant that he would be scorned, because on Maiyosh-sei, your success was measured through how well your only child performed. Had Jiece died he would have been free to sire another.

But one of Jiece's, disappointing qualities was that he was abnormally stubborn. Just to spite his parents he had done his level best at being the top-ranked fighter for his age and then, at the tender age of twelve, Frieza had noticed him.

He remembered the day clearly. His drill sergeant had been yelling at his squad for a good two hours about how well they were to perform at the tournament for Frieza. Jeice had spent the entire time ignoring the man and trying to figure out just how long he could grow his hair before he was really stretching the regulations. It was because of this that he never noticed that Frieza had come past on a random inspection of his troops and had asked him a question.

Quick on his feet, Jeice had replied, “Huh?”

He could have sworn his drill sergeant had a heart attack right then and there and when Jiece realised who he had so eloquently replied to, he almost had one himself. It must have been a good day because the Tsiru-jin lord had smirked and asked him his name.

“Jiece,” he had answered promptly, hoping that the first word that had jumped into his head was actually his name.

“Jiece,” Frieza had repeated. The twelve year old relaxed. “Good luck with the tournament.” And the ruler of most of the galaxy had wandered off. Just like that. Jiece couldn't believe his luck.

Naturally he had gone on to win the tournament, even against fully trained grown men twice his size. He had his first real taste of what power he might gain that day; especially when he had been presented to Frieza for the second time.

“So, you are more than just your usual Maiyosh-jin,” Frieza had said.

Jiece, who had worked out that `huh' would not cut it as an answer this time replied, “I've been here since I was seven, Lord Frieza, most of my people don't train this much.”

“A pity.” He didn't flinch as Frieza gazed down at him, even though the red eyes were undoubtedly the creepiest thing he had ever seen. After a moment Frieza had turned to his second-in-command. “Bring the boy up here; I want him to see his competition.”

Competition? Jeice had thought. For what? But he had not waited long to find out.

The other `boy', when he arrived was clearly older than him by several years. And it was clear by the way that Frieza had looked at him that this `boy' was very special in his eyes.

And when the newcomer had turned his golden eyes to look at Jeice, it was also clear that this boy had been under Frieza's wing for far too long. His eyes were dull and he was clearly terrified of the Tsiru-jin lord.

“This is Zarbon,” Frieza had said. “There is an open spot on my special forces team, the Ginyu Force. Captain Ginyu,” he gestured to a large purple man on his right, “is going to preside over the next match to see which of you is more worthy to be under his command.”

And so it had begun.

From the moment he had stepped into that arena, Jiece had had the match won. He knew and he knew that Zarbon knew that he was the stronger of the two. But the blue skinned boy had tried his utmost, his shoulder length green hair whipping about his face as he tried vainly to keep up with Jeice's speed. And Ginyu, well Ginyu had taken every opportunity to call the match in Zarbon's favour. So when Jeice finally put the other boy out of the match Ginyu almost went blue with rage protesting to Frieza that this ignorant Maiyosh-jin boy must somehow have cheated.

Frieza had chuckled, declared him the winner and walked away.

Three weeks later he was sent on his first mission and his captain had bitched the entire time about how little experience he had. And then Jeice had put the nail in the coffin.

“So sorry I took the place of your cute little boyfriend.”

He spent the next two days in a regen tank.

Sitting in the lounge of the orbiting spaceship Jeice wasn't surprised at how little the relationship between he and his captain had changed over the years.

 

~*~*~*~

 

On a newly purged planet a long haired Saiya-jin wondered the same thing about his Prince. He stood on a bluff overlooking what was once the main capital of the planet, his long heavy hair barely moving in the slight breeze.

Glancing over his shoulder he looked to the campsite where Nappa and Vegeta were roasting whatever the little rodent Nappa had found in this wasteland was. Apparently Vegeta was getting tired of raw meat. Once again Radditz's opinion had been completely overlooked.

When was his prince going to start trusting him? For the gods' sake they were the only ones if their kind left and yet the most Vegeta ever spoke to him was to tell him what a woeful fighter he was. If only he had held a higher position of power when Vegeta-sei had been destroyed. Radditz sighed knowing that that fantasy had been impossible. He had only been eight and on his first purging missions with some of Frieza's other minions when that happened.

He wasn't the smartest of men either. Going behind his prince's back to speak to Frieza had proven that to him. Perhaps…perhaps if he found Chikyuu-sei and found his brother still alive, perhaps then his prince would have more respect for him.

Perhaps he would also get himself killed by meddling in Frieza's affairs with this new tech.

Perhaps he would finally do something right the day hell froze over. Well, if that last one were true, at least he'd have a long while to practice for it.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Bulma rubbed her temples in annoyance. It had been one thing after another today and all she had wanted to do was sleep.

After the quick visit to the Maiyosh-jin ship, where she and Yamcha had both recognised the man from her father's meeting but not said a word about her involvement in the rebellion, they had head straight home, where she had been met by her father who had given her a two hour lecture on being more careful in unsecured places like Yotume-sei and taking unnecessary risks like not having the shield up until after they had been spotted. She had responded by saying they were tiny little glitches in the plan and besides nothing had gone wrong, which set him off again on a lecture about how they couldn't afford `tiny little glitches'. Then Gokou and ChiChi had arrived and she could tell from the look on his face that she had better get ready to settle in again for yet another tirade.

Short of prostrating herself she apologised to ChiChi as best she could and tried to explain why they needed Gokou's help so much. It took a bit of fancy wording but eventually ChiChi gave in and decided that Gokou helping was for the better and besides he took up too much of her time around the house anyway.

Raising her head from her soothing fingers Bulma rose and staggered up the stairs to her bedroom. She flung open the door to find Yamcha fast asleep and snoring on his side of her bed. Rolling her eyes she flopped down next to him. Sleepily he mumbled, “I wondered how long you were going to be,” and put his arm around her. Snuggled against his warmth she felt fast asleep.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Frieza sat in his audience room on Planet Frieza No. 79 waiting for the Ginyus to arrive and grinning at the screen in front of him as it faded to black, his red eyes flashing in delight.

This was the most interesting news he had had in months. Who would have thought a stupid monkey could be right?

 

 

 

 

 

Author's note:

 

August? August? I haven't updated this thing since then? Wow. I think I've had writers block for a while now. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter out sooner.