Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Only the Weak ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Only the Weak

By Karete-chan

Chapter 3:

"What are you doing?"

ThreeBrown spun and the sight that greeted her eyes froze her bones. She had never laid eyes on him before but there was no mistaking who he was. Being so scared of the higher officers, the other slaves did not speak much about him and right now he was someone she really didn't want to meet. He was Zarbon. Frieza's trusted right-hand man. She backed away from him quickly, slipping on the wet floor and landing on her backside. Not taking her fear filled eyes off him she moved backwards on her hands and feet until she hit a wall and couldn't go any further.

Zarbon watched her with some amusement. Her breathing had sky rocketed and she was in danger of hyperventilating. Frantically she pointed to the pool and then herself, shaking her head the whole time. He smirked and she paled but despite her recent impromptu swim, it went unnoticed because there was still sufficient dirt to hide her true colourings.

"I saw what happened. He was an idiot," he took in her filthy state and raised a thin green eyebrow. "Though I'm not sure if he was wrong in trying to do away with you. Perhaps it would have been better if you both had drowned." He paused. She was shaking now. It was pathetic, he thought, though she undoubtedly knew that she was being disrespectful, she hadn't taken her eyes off him. She jumped at every little movement he made, hugged her knees as if they would protect her and bits of her hair hung in her eyes adding to her dishevelled appearance. "Get up."

She shot to her feet, trembling. Hugging her arms across her body she now kept her head bowed and eyes down waiting for whatever fate he devised for her.

He wrinkled his face in disgust as he saw the puddle of dirty water she stood in. "Get back to your quarters." She looked at him, startled. "Go!" he growled taking a step forward. "Before I finish what he started." Almost slipping in her haste she fled from the room, not caring if she received a beating for running in the halls.

~*~*~*~

"You're sure about this?"

"Yes Master Frieza. Our spies have found enough information for us to take out the whole rebel army."

The wine washed side to side in the fine crystal glass as Frieza lent forward. He grinned. "So you have found their little hideaway I take it?" His red eyes flashed with malice.

The man in front of him swallowed, his bulbous eyes spinning on the end of their stalks. "Y…yes Master Frieza." He turned to the console behind him and punched a few buttons. Several solar systems appeared on the screen. "This is SM-4," he said as he enhanced one system and focused on the fourth planet from the twin suns. "Classified fourth standard but underneath all that noxious gas is a solid surface. Apparently they have buried into it. Most of their main labs are situated here which is why scanning has been useless. The gases play havoc with the scanning process. This is the largest we know of but there are other similar set ups in both the Namek-sei system and in the unoccupied system of Dentar."

"Do the Namek-jin or Shimat-jin know anything of this?"

"They claim to have had no prior knowledge of the bases my Lord and doubled their tributes for the year to you as a gesture of goodwill."

The youngest Lord of Tsiru-sei frowned. "We will believe them for now. Send out two squads to each base. Take the leaders back to Tsiru-sei for…questioning. Eradicate the rest."

"As you wish Lord Frieza." The man scurried out of the room.

Frieza smiled as he stared out into the blackness of space. The pesky little group who dared to call themselves rebels would soon be dealt with. Their actions against him and the rest of his race had never been effective but as his empire grew they had become more and more of a problem. They need to be wiped out before any of the stronger races under his control got it into their tiny little brains that it would be a good idea to join them, that life would be better without Tsiru-sei breathing down their necks.

He grinned. He would destroy them all before he let that happen.

~*~*~*~

A few days after the incident in the poolroom, ThreeBrown stopped jumping at every little sound she heard. Her fear over the repercussions of her behaviour faded when she was sure nothing was going to happen to her. She didn't tell her friends and they wondered what had happened to make her act this way. Her left eye had swollen badly so they concluded that she had been beaten for being to slow. But just as life had calmed back to its `normal' state, Petak brought bad news.

The old man returned to the common room one afternoon his face haggard. He immediately sought out the four girls and sat down beside them. He took the hands of ThreeBrown in his own wrinkled ones and sighed heavily.

"I have done you a great injustice little one and possibly to your friends as well." She stole a glance sideways at her friends and watched as their eyes slowly glazed over with fear. "They overheard me talking. It was foolish of me I know but this old man still has not learned to keep his mouth shut." He looked at her and saw mixed in with the fear, confusion. "Do you not understand child? They are coming for you."

Having no way to ask who `they' were in sign language, ThreeBrown was at a loss. Then, as if on cue, the door slid open and two guards stepped into the room. Immediately all eyes went to the floor and the room fell silent.

"Don't try to run," the old man muttered. "It will only make things worse." He got slowly to his feet as the two guards approached.

"Well?" one asked as they neared. "Which one is it?"

Petak slowly reached out and placed a hand on the girl's thin shoulder.

"That's her?" the other asked, his voice full of scepticism. Petak nodded. The guard looked her up and down and sneered. "Come on then." She didn't move. "Are you deaf? Move!" he roared at her. She jumped and scrambled to her feet. Grabbing her roughly by the arms they hauled her from the room. Her friends watched dejectedly as she went and as the doors slid shut behind her, the slaves' conversation turned to a new topic; Threebrown's replacement.

~*~*~*~

A door slammed and loud curses strained sensitive ears that could have heard them whispered in the next room.

"Keep it down Radditz! Do you want to end up back in a regen-tank?"

Radditz growled as he rounded the corner, glaring at the large bald man who had his feet propped on a small crate. Nappa grinned.

"What's pulling on your tail now?"

The longhaired Saiya-jin kicked a crate viciously, smashing it against a wall. "The same thing as always."

"You still wasting your time with that? It's been what? Twenty-three years since the last transmission from his pod? He's probably dead." Nappa shrugged.

"Yeah. But what if something happened to leave him stranded? What if he can't transmit and is just stuck there?"

"He's dead boy. Face it."

"He's my brother dammit!"

Nappa raised an eyebrow. Even with all his years under Frieza, Radditz was still as headstrong as ever. His cocky mouth had gotten him into trouble with his Prince often enough and various other members of Frieza's army; Jeice being the latest. While not being sympathetic Nappa could understand the boy's frustration. Knowing that you were the last of your race wasn't the easiest thing to live with.

"Have you found the planet yet?"

"No. I just spent two hours going through system files. Nothing."

"What was it called again?"

"Chikyuu-sei. Classified third standard." Radditz sighed. "It's almost like the place doesn't exist."

The big bald man got up. "It'll turn up eventually but when it does you'll be convincing Prince Vegeta to go on your own. I still think the brat'll be dead."

~*~*~*~

The wind blew softly on Son Gokou's face as he watched the valley beneath him. He could see the small trail of smoke rise above the treetops as it left the chimney of his house. Pebbles rolled down the cliff beside him. Counting to three, he ducked and sat up in time to catch his son as he went sailing over the cliff edge.

"Missed again, Gohan," he smiled brightly.

Five-year-old Gohan laughed. "I'll never be as good as you Daddy."

"Sure you will," he replied, sitting the boy on his shoulders. "You just need more practice. NIMBUS!"

The small gold cloud zoomed into view and Gokou jumped down as it passed beneath. Catching them neatly, it sped off towards their home.

ChiChi walked out to meet them as the little cloud came to a stop in front of the small house.

"Gokou! Where have you been all day?" She stood, hands on hips, one of them gripping a wooden spoon.

"We were up in the mountains. I was just giving Gohan some lessons."

"Fighting lessons?" her eyes narrowed. "No son of mine is going to be a brainless fighter! He's going to be a great scholar and he needs to do his study!"

Gokou took a step back. "I'm sorry ChiChi," he said, hand behind his head. "He'll study all day tomorrow. I promise!"

"Good." She smiled. "We have a guest for dinner."

Gokou let out a whoosh of air as she turned around. "Guest? Who?" he asked as he ducked through the doorway, careful not let Gohan hit his head.

"Hey Gokou!"

"Bulma! We haven't seen you since that get together at Master Roshi's."

She laughed. "Yeah. I really should come and see you guys more but it's such a long way to come when you can't fly."

"Well, we'd come and visit you too," ChiChi put in, "but Nimbus can't hold all of us and Gokou refuses to learn how to drive." She glared at him.

"Huh?" Gokou looked up from where he'd been staring at the pot on the stove.

ChiChi sighed. "Anyway, Bulma, what caused you to make the trip over today?"

"Believe it or not I was kicked out of the house."

"At your age? What did you do?" ChiChi asked, astonished.

Bulma laughed. "I didn't do anything. Papa is having some top secret meeting thing that he didn't want me eavesdropping on. So he kicked me out."

"As if you would do that!"

"Would I ever!" Bulma grinned. "I bugged the whole house! If anything worth knowing happens I'll have it on tape!"

ChiChi sighed. "Am I the only adult around here?"

Gokou and Bulma looked at each other. "Yep."

~*~*~*~

The guards shoved ThreeBrown down numerous corridors that she had never seen before. As they walked they made derogatory comments about having to burn their gloves after they were done with her. After a while they came to a halt outside a door in a section of the ship that was obviously better looked after. The lighting didn't flicker and wasn't dim, the walls and floor were clean and as far as she could tell, everything worked properly.

Part of her fear had been quelled enough by her curiosity to allow her to look around as they entered a room. A stool stood on its own in a corner; they marched her over, sat her down roughly, turned and left. Bewildered she sat there and took in her surroundings. Someone important lived here. There were carpets on the floor, high backed chairs with cushions upon them and a large computer console on an expensive looking wood desk in the opposite corner. ThreeBrown was well aware that she looked very out of place in the clean room. The hissing sound of another door opening caused her to turn to see who had summoned her.

"You? You're the one the old man claimed was better than hours in a rejuve-tank?"

She jerked backwards and fell off the stool at the sight of Zarbon in the doorway. Standing quickly she adopted her usual hunched pose, careful to keep her eyes down.

Zarbon stepped into the room regarding her quietly. Strange that he should come across the same ragged girl in such a short space of time. Although, she did look somewhat different when she wasn't soaking wet. Perhaps it was because her clothes were dry and didn't cling to her? As he walked towards her he wondered idly if he would have been able to tell she was a girl if they hadn't. She certainly didn't look like one now, more a tall pile of rags.

"Well? Is that who you are?" he asked again, irritated. "The reliever of that old man's aches and pains?"

She nodded.

Stopping his advance on her he turned and moved to sit in one of the numerous chairs in the room, his cape sweeping behind him. Looking back at her he frowned; she hadn't moved from her place near the overturned stool.

"I won't bite girl but it doesn't mean I can't," he growled at her. "Get over here and do what you were summoned for. I don't want you here any longer than is necessary."

Hastily she grabbed her stool and moved to seat herself near him. As he held out his arm he acted as if he had not been the one to summon her and that this was a great inconvenience for him. Trying to ignore the fact that he was a murderer of millions and that he could quite easily reach over and snap her neck if he felt like it, she quietly took a deep breath and stretched out her hands. The thought of touching this man let alone being alone in the same room as him sent shudders through her body. She could barely stop her hands from shaking. Keeping her eyes solely fixed on his arm she sent her thoughts elsewhere, trying to imagine what she could be doing now back at home. It didn't help much.

As her fingers brushed his arm he suddenly jerked it away. Startled she cried out and fell backwards off the stool, covering her face with her arms. Peering up at him through her good eye as he towered over her, she cringed in fear at the look upon his face. His eyes narrowed as he sneered in disgust. He stretched out his arm, the palm of his hand facing her. Her eye widened and she knew what was coming; she had seen it happen to others numerous times before.

"You dare to touch me?" he asked with a deadly softness. "Even if you were not covered in filth, I do not allow slaves to touch me."

The light of a ki ball slowly began to form in his palm. Glaring down at her he saw that eye was glued to the glowing orb, he could read the fear there easily but there was something else there as well. He watched as she bit her bottom lip and a single tear fell from her eye. He ignored it. She looked worried. No. It was…confusion? His brow furrowed. Why would she be confused? Surely she knew what was happening, unless…had she only been doing what was asked of her? Was that the skill she possessed? Touch? Slowly he let the ki ball dissipate and lowered his arm.

"Get up," he said curtly to the cowering girl on the floor. Shaking, she stood slowly keeping her head bowed. "Look at me," he commanded.

Hesitantly she raised her eyes to his. Standing this close to her he took in for the first time the severity of the injury to her face. Even through all the dirt he could see that the bruising covered the majority of her cheek and that swelling forced her to be temporarily blinded in her right eye. She brought up one dirty hand and wiped away the tear on her face, smearing more dirt across her injury. He turned his lip up in disgust and she looked away.

"Show me how you treated the old man."

She nodded. Shaking, she pointed to her lower leg then placed her fingers on her arm and made a squeezing motion. He said nothing and she watched as his feet moved away from her. A door slid open.

Lifting her head she stared after him in bewilderment. What the hell was he doing? She drew in a shuddering breath and stopped struggling to stand. She grabbed the stool as she collapsed to the floor and rested her forehead against it. Wrapping her trembling arms around herself she shut her eyes and attempted to control her breathing. Oh god, he almost…he almost…he almost killed her. She'd seen the ki ball that was going to do it and she'd wanted so desperately to run but she couldn't, she couldn't take her eyes from the pretty light that was going to kill her. Choking, she bit back a sob.

When Zarbon came back into the room the girl was still shuddering on the floor, her hands gripping the legs of the stool as if they were a lifeline. She didn't notice him until he stood next to her. Her head turned slightly and he could imagine the look of panic on her face as she realised. She shot to her feet but almost collapsed again, so she seated herself upon the stool once more, head bowed and trembling hands in her lap.

He seated himself in the chair next to her and held out his arm. It was now wrapped in material but looked nothing like anything she had ever seen. If she hadn't been so terrified of him she would have laughed. He was so vain.

"Well? Get on with it then," he snapped. She jumped at his words but reached out and shakily, began her work.

Author's note:

No more updates on either of my fics for a little while. I have to write a 3000-word research essay for my Environmental History subject.

I am dreading it. 3000 words of fan fiction - no problem. 3000 words that actually have to have some facts and figures in it - makes me cry. (You thought I was going to say `Priceless' didn't you?)

Thanks to those who reviewed. Remember more reviews = much better written chapters (and more of them!)

Oh, a show of hands please - who thought the blonde girl was Juuhachi-gou? Or Marron? (Her daughter, not the blue haired bimbo)

Ja ne! - Karete