| Author�s note: I�ve published this story before and was astounded by the many good reviews I�ve received for this rather dark tale. I�ve enjoyed writing it, although the subject had pushed me beyond the limits of my own morals. The violence and the brutality in the story have been depicted very vividly, and I guess some of my readers were upset about that. However one of them commented that my story was mere a reflection of the cruelty in human nature, and I admit that I cannot agree more with her statement. As a writer, what you create is what you observe. Some of us prefer to notice the good in people, others can only see the ugly side of our species. And now, it�s time to end this creation of mine so our hero can finally find his peace. Part 5 What may come of violence 1. Capsule Corp. Present day The serenity of night was still in the air as Vegeta opened his bedroom window and stared outside into an almost alien landscape. Trees were mere dark shadows of whispering ghosts and stood with their black foliage out of a darkblue sky. Streetlights cast their beams on the pavement, creating mysterious patterns of scattered light while early birds started to sing. A new day was dawning and the prince closed his eyes while he filled his lungs with the fresh morning air. In his gloved hands he held a small parcel containing the very few belongings he had acquired during a lifetime of wandering from planet to planet. Most of them were mementos of worlds long pillaged and destroyed by him and his Saiyan companions; a crystal fragment that reflected all the nuances of the blue spectrum which once belonged to a king of an alien race, a rare black pearl robed out of the hands of a dying merchant, who valued his fortune more then his own life, a teardrop shaped diamond given to him by a warrior soulmate, someone who could even be considered as a friend, with whom he had lost track long ago in the vast emptiness of space. As a member of royalty and being brought up in the wealth and the decadence of a monarch�s palace, Vegeta could truly appreciate the beauty of rare and exotic treasures. However, these jewelry he owned were also reminders of his violent and turbulent life. Every piece he possessed was stained with the blood and tears of millions of his victims. Vegeta used to admire these treasures, regarding them as gruesome trophies reminding him of numerous victorious battles, each of them holding a memory of the destructive powers of the once glorious Saiyan race. He used to be so proud of the devastation and sorrow he created. But now, the deeper meanings these treasures once held had disappeared, and all that was left was the guilt that stained their shiny surfaces. To Vegeta, they had little to no value any longer. Except for the tearshaped diamond and his father royal emblem, none of these riches were important to him. They belonged to a sad and indifferent man who died on Namek by the hands of his life time nemesis. At first he wanted to leave them here at capsule Corp, as a token of appreciation for the Brief�s family hospitality, but then he realized that he didn�t want Bulma to touch these haunted pieces so he finally decided to take them with him. Better not to leave a trace of his violent past to stain the hands of the innocent. One day, the bitter Saiyan prince would eventually find the courage to bury these together with the restless ghosts of their rightful owners. But for now, he had to carry them together with the weight of his own growing remorse. There was only one object he left behind from which he truly wished he could take with him. It was a picture of Bulma and him snapped by misses Brief last spring in a moment of lowered sentry on his part. He looked somewhat angrily surprised in the photo, but Bulma was holding his arm and was making rabbit�s ears above his head in a flare of benevolent mischief. Although he had sneered nasty comments at her and her mother once the picture had been developed, he was actually very fond of it. It was one of the rare moments in his life that was truly blissful, and in this thin piece of paper, that rare moment was captured and saved forever. It would be the first momento that held the memory of a pleasant time in his collection that otherwise solely represented death, mayhem, hate and sorrow. But just as the very person that was the cause of these lively moments, he had to leave it behind. 2. Inside Frieza�s spaceship, the dark corridors of the vast complex were filled with the cries of torture and caused the cold tyrant who was responsible for it�s victim�s agony to quiver and clench his hands in distress. Frieza sat on his large skull shaped throne, his body tensed and his face hidden behind a dark mask of denial. (Stupid monkey! You had this coming to you with your arrogance and disloyalty! I shouldn�t be feeling sorry for you at all!) But it pained him to hear the young Saiyan prince who he had raised and formed to his own image to suffer so deeply. Frieza could first not understand the feeling that kept nagging at him in silence, telling him to stop Dodoria�s and Zarbon�s assaults in oder for his aching heart to find peace. The emotion was new to him, and wriggled like pale flesh eating larvae trough his soul, betraying his cruel and compassionless nature. It was his conscience. He didn�t even know he had one before it was awakened by his apprentice�s misery. (That�s just great, I�m getting weak because of my sympathy towards a pathetic domesticated monkey that would just love to blast my head off my shoulders if he got the chance! Way to go for an deity-like ruler of a vast intergalactic empire!) He winced as the cries that had died down for a while returned with a vengeance and stabbed him right into his frozen heart. He couldn�t take this any longer. Vegeta�s agony was driving him insane instead of giving him any sense of achievement. Perhaps he cared more for the insolent fool than he had thought. He raised his hand and launched a blast on the throne room entrance, his beam collide with the supporting pillar, causing the whole structure to collapse. As stone, plaster and wood rained down, the doorway was obstructed by the debris, blocking out the haunting cries from his ear�s reach. Frieza stared at the destruction that must shield him from his soul finding mercy. He had shown his weakness to the hostile Saiyan before�., and had been heavily punished for it. He wouldn�t allow himself to make the same mistake again. As he was left alone in the silence of isolation that he had created himself, his haunted mind reconstructed every moment in the past in which his precious prince had suffered by his own hands; how he used to punish him for his disobedience as a unruly child, how he crushed his pride when he was a rebellious adolescent, how he raped the proud warrior and desecrated his honor�. The devastating words of the fallen prince repeated himself in his recollection like a bad record stuck on a needle. The meaning of each of them burnt holes in his pitch-black soul. As Vegeta was suffering by the hands of the cold tyrant�s soldiers, so was Frieza himself tortured in his own created version of hell. 3. The light of the nearby burning star touched his damp and battered cheeks and caressed his closed eyelids with its warmth and comfort. The wounded warrior stirred awake and was immediately captured by the red horned beast of pain. It ripped through his spine with its sharp claws, reminding him that his ribs were broken and that they were penetrating his organs, stabbing the life out of him with each vital breath he took. He coughed up a cloth of dark blood that trickled from the corner of his lips to the stone floor. With an almost dumbfounded look on his face, he instinctively raised his hand to wipe away the muck, only to find himself ambushed for a second time by the pain as it shot through his broken left arm and made him cry out in agony. Vegeta blinked heavily, forcing his weary eyes to focus. What he saw as he looked down at his painful limp was alarming; the flesh on his hand had turned cold with patches of blue indicating areas in which blood had coagulated underneath the pale skin and a piece of bone stuck trough his blooded elbow like a dead branch of a broken tree. As he fought against the burning pain and tried to bald his shivering hand into a fist, the effort to do so made him wince and pant heavily while sweat ran down his dark eyebrows. Just as his fingers toughed the flesh of his swollen palm, the agony of the action became too great for the tortured Saiyan and he had to let go. His weakened body collapsed backwards against the stone wall of his prison cell and he closed his eyes while his cheeks were flushed by utter frustration. "Useless.." He whispered the word in a low rasp while the tears stung in his eyes. The blissful fog that had clouded his head during the first moments of his rude awakening was retreating and revealed the disturbing memories of past night encounter with the wolfs that had devoured him. The violent and humiliating recollections stuck out in the mist of oblivion like the bodies of fallen soldiers pierced on spikes on a bloodstained battlefield. He had let his most hated foe ravish his body and torture him till he was at the brink of death. Then the beastly tyrant had handed him over to his lowly servants, leaving the Saiyan prince at the mercy of two perverted and vile minds. The cruel duo raped him physically and mentally, tearing open his violated body, breaking his limps and ribs and shattering what was left from his dismembered pride. There were moments during the long and horrific night in which he lost himself in his own agony. The cries he produced were distant and like the pain, it belonged to someone else, as if he had stepped outside of his body and watched while it was being molested and wounded till the damage done to it was forever unreparable. These were the moments in which he believed that there was indeed a merciful God guarding over his already condemned soul who allowed him to escape from his torment. At other times, the pain was real and the torture unbearable, and he found himself rolling over the floor, covered in dirt like a lowly animal, choking in his own blood and tears, screaming to his tormentors to show him mercy. No pride was left inside of him at these moments, only the animalistic crave to escape his suffering and certain death. The broken warrior crawled into a dark corner of his cell, instincts taking over from his reason, and lay his tired body down to rest with his back against the wall while his frightened and wary eyes were locked on the wooden door. The young prince was dying and he was scared� Scared to die alone, miserable and forgotten by the Saiyan Gods his father had taught him to worship. The fear of death was only natural, programmed in the minds of every living creature to cherish precious life, but to the Saiyan prince, this was his ultimate betrayal to his race�s heritage. Not only had he begged his enemies for their mercy, an cowardly act he had sworn never to carry out to his beloved father, but in these final moments he found himself weak enough to grief over the lost of his own futile life. How pathetic. It�s not like his existence was something valuable to mourn about. He had not known a single day of bliss since Frieza took him away from his father and his people. The evil tyrant raised him to become as cold and ruthless like himself, and he had succeeded. Nothing had ever made Vegeta truly happy, if he was laughing cruelly at the destruction of others by his own hands, it was always purely the reflection of his tutor�s nature that surfaced in his deformed personality. Rape, pillage and murder, all of them were tools to carry out his desperate attempts to escape his own growing madness. The fiery hatred against Frieza that sucked the last bit of compassion out of him had left the Saiyan prince empty and cold without a soul to harbor a warm heart, and the callous warrior had wandered through the vastness of the galaxy ever since, searching for a way to dispose himself from his haunting demon or to finally find salvation in his own destruction. A weak, frightened whine came out of the beaten prince, as a lock was opened and heavy chains were removed on the outside of the prisondoor. As it swung open, bright lights flooded the dark room and illuminated the miserable captive crouching in the far corner. Vegeta winced and shut his eyes to protect them from the harsh light. He felt his heart jump up in his throat as he heard icy footsteps approaching him. He swallowed a painful lump of coagulated blood that was causing him difficulty to breath while he dragged himself away from the small figure with the serpent like tail, his mind totally disconnected from common sense as he tried to escape from his eerie demon. "Please�No more of this�." His abused body writhed as he felt the touch of the tyrant over his bare wounded back. It was soft and gentle. It was almost compassionate. It was nothing like the cruel ruler�s cold nature. Vegeta buried his head between his broken arms, trying to shield himself from the dangerous beast that had eaten away his sanity. For the first time since his childhood, he was scared to death of him. As his nemesis touch wandered upward along his spine, his emotionally drained body betrayed him and he lost control over his bladder. With a mixture of shame and disgust, he noticed a small pool of warm urine forming between his shivering legs. For a moment he was the little chibi prince again that was abandoned by his father in the darkness and the cold of Frieza�s vast throne room. ~*~*~*~*~*~ The lizard-like icejin was tracing the tears of the forsaken boy with his flexible tail. A wicked smile appeared as he sensed the despair vibrating from his young body like shockwaves from their epicenter. The tip of his tail wrapped around the child�s chin, and pinched it slightly as he forced it upward to look him into his eyes. -Don�t be afraid Vegeta. Although your father has abandoned you, I�m here, and I will take care of your every need. You may not see it yet my young prince, but I�ll be everything for you from this day on. I�ll become your tutor, your one and only trustful companion, and with time past, you may even regard me as the closest substitute to a feeble father that preferred to sacrifice you in order to save his own worthless hide. I will raise you my young one, I will form you to my own image till all the weakness is drilled out of you. You�ll become relentless and finally know the meaning of true power. For all this, I only ask your total devotion to me in exchange. Live by my rules Vegeta, and you�ll become one of the most powerful fighters in the universe. Ignore them, and find yourself crushed under my feet like so many foolish weaklings before you.- - So what shall it be Vegeta? - - What�s your choice? - - Do you choose life, or do you choose death?- ~*~*~*~*~*~ 4. "Do you choose life, or do you choose death?" Vegeta opened his eyes, with a fervent determination, he raised his head to face his hated nemesis. The expression on his face hardened and with a shivering voice he responded to the question that he had not dared to truthfully answer for so long. "I rather die Frieza! Do you hear me?! I rather rot in hell for eternity then to spent the rest of my life being your slave, being someone I wish I was not!" With a frightened heart, the Saiyan prince observed the frozen expression on his tormentor�s face. The benevolent smile that had accompanied his question was still captured on his lips, but faded away as his revelation gradually shattered the last hope for the delusional tyrant to find salvation for the Saiyan prince. (Now I�ve done it! I�ve sealed my own doom with this! If there�s really a God out there that cares a rat�s ass about me, I beg him now to let me die swiftly and spare me from even more unimaginable suffering�.) Frieza�s mind went blank for a moment, he didn�t anticipate this. He had entered the prison cell and had seen a broken creature whose limps were fractured and ribs splintered while blood ran down his legs as a gruesome reminder of Dodoria�s and Zarbon�s brutal assaults. No doubt, their violent acts would have been devastating for his spirit, may have even drove him over the brink of madness. His Saiyan prince was frightened like a trapped animal, as he had reached out to him in an attempt to comfort him with gentleness and care, the violated victim had lost control over his bladder and urinated in front of his tormentor�s eyes. In Frieza�s mind, there was no question about Vegeta�s condition� This should have been a man whose will to fight was crushed into non-existence. Instead, he was fighting back with the most pathetic little amount of life energy that was left within him. (H-He rather die then surrender to me�.That�s what he has said�.Vegeta�.YOU�RE SUCH AN INSULANT FOOL!!) Frieza�s pale features came back to life again as frustration, anger and sadness all erupted to the surface at once. With a trembling hand he grabbed the half-dead Saiyan, and pointed his forefinger at him, his sharp fingernail cut through his flesh right above his sternum. With a deceiving calmness, he looked into his prisoner in the eyes, searching for the very matter he hoped not to find. There was only pitch black darkness in Vegeta�s eyes, no sign of that aggressive spark of light, that gave a glimpse of his inner fiery animosity towards his tutor and most hated foe. "You prefer death over absolute power? You rather die then become my equal? You�re weak Vegeta! I�ve thought I�ve raised you to be better than this!" He still hoped he could somehow change the course of fate, he still couldn�t believe he was finally defeated. With the little hope that was left, the icejin threw this final saving rope to his prince. The stubborn fool had to seize this last chance to salvation, or he could do little but watch and let him drown. The fallen prince smiled sadly, he had given up all hope for saving himself from the moment he had told Frieza the very truth, he needed no second chance. "I prefer death Frieza�You�ve never raised me, you have mere beaten me into submission and forced me to become who I am today, and I�m sick and tired to be a hated reflection of your loathsome image. So for once in my life, I allow myself to be weak�..Kill me Frieza�.Finish with what you�ve started from the day you took me away from my father." The face of the cold tyrant darkened, his cold eyes narrowed while the increased trembling of his hands betrayed his inner struggle. Rage was boiling inside him, forcing his energy to rush towards his raised hand that was still aiming at the prisoner. A bright blue light started to glow and illuminated the Vegeta�s frightened features. The lightbeam made contact, and a freezing sensation stung on his bare skin. (Oh, God!�.This is it�.) Vegeta clenched his eyes closed, waiting for his life to end. The sharp sting in his neck intensified, he knew that if the tyrant would just increased the amount of ki in his fingertip with the slightest of strength, the beam will pierce trough his neck and rupture his arteries, causing him to bleed slowly to death. Perspiration ran down his temple as he forced himself to be brave and take his death as a true Saiyan warrior, but he could hear his blood rushing in his veins and his heart beating with a rhythm of a stampede. Tears stung in his eyes as he thought of his father. (I failed you�I couldn�t destroy our hated oppressor..) "Vegeta�" Not being able to find the courage to open his eyes, the Saiyan prince whimpered at the mere thought that his hated foe was prolonging his life, only to trifle with his fear. He felt like a wounded mouse trapped in the claws of a cruel feline. (For fuck sake! End this you sadistic monster! Haven�t you toyed enough with me?!!!) "Vegeta!" Dreading what the icejin had installed for him, he opened his hooded eyes reluctantly, the cold caress of eminent death was still stinging in his skin. "I want to know Vegeta�" The expression on the tyrant face was one of utter determinance. His Saiyan prince, the only creature in the universe that had ever been able to melt away the cruelty from his heart by giving him the gift of compassion, had prevailed; neither the promise of power nor torture could make Vegeta his. Even death could not change the mind of the stubborn prince�.The mighty monarch had been defeated��, and he wanted to know why. "I want to know why you�ve betrayed me Vegeta� I showed my weakness to you, I gave you my heart and you threw it in front of a wild pack of dogs for them to carnage on while you watch and laugh in apathy! Why Vegeta?! Why!? Does all these years of care and companionship hold no value to you? I�ve been to you like a father, more then your natural father ever have been. I�ve taught you how to guide your anger and deadened your emotions to become one of the best fighters of the universe. I�ve let you command armies of thousands and conquer worlds, a fate surely worthy of a true Saiyan�s violent nature. I�ve given you power beyond the reach of any common man, but still, all this had not been enough to put out the razing fire of abomination that roamed inside of you. Why Vegeta!? Why is it so hard for you to love me? In your mind, am I truly but a repulsive creature that had done nothing but wrong you in every possible way?" A silence fell as Frieza waited impatiently for Vegeta to response. The beaten Saiyan was drifting away, he could feel his life energy slipping and soon, he wouldn�t need Frieza to send him to the next dimension, he would be already well on his way to the world of lost souls. The very essence of fear distanced from him. What was a disillusioned man like him longer afraid of if his demons had finally caught up with him? Nothing, not even death, and Vegeta�s courage returned with a vengeance. He faced his tormenter one last time, the light in his dark eyes finally came back to life, ignited by the fuel of his eternal hatred. Slowly, his familiar smirk returned on his bloodstained lips. "I can feel no more for anyone. Love is an ability that I have long since lost, it perished along with all of his weak brothers, slain in order for this "powerful" and "undefeatable" warrior to emerge�So powerful and undefeatable indeed that it�s mentor had no difficulty at all to play him like a lute and send him out to murder and pillage worlds for him, to treat him like a obedient slave, to force him to prostitute his soul and betray his race by serving it�s vowed enemy." There was a bitter grin on the prisoner�s face, years of oppression and suffering caused emotions to stir that had been nursed to sleep for decades. For the first time in his life, Vegeta became finally aware of what kind of desolation Frieza had left behind inside of him. His heart was like a bare desert, too hostile by day, too cold by night and too deprived of compassion to harbor any living soul... "I�ve been left cold and empty with every violent act I carried out in your name and every life I was forced to take. The way that I�ve become�the numbed and wrathful beast that I�m now�. I owe my existence all to you �you thought me how to hate Frieza�.and hate is all that I�ll ever be capable of�." 5. The cold tyrant didn�t show any reaction to Vegeta�s words, although inside, his heart was jaded and his emotions frozen like shallow lakes in winter. But Vegeta knew he had upset the icejin, his deadly finger trembled and the pressure on his skin increased. A fine cut appeared out of which crimson blood trickled down the V-line of the warrior�s neck. "You�re cruel Vegeta�Cruel and merciless�However much you detest to admit it�Your true nature is more like your mentor�s then you may think." The fatal blue light at the tip of Frieza�s finger roared into life as it absorbed all of its creator�s anger and grief. It created a ball of bright white light in which a mystic cloud of energy was constantly disrupted by forks of lightening. It shone through the flesh of the Saiyan prince like a flashlight shining through a thin piece of paper and it revealed the miracle workings of life; the seemingly endless stream of blood flowing through his veins, the beating of his strong and muscular heart, the rising of his ribcage and the expansion of his lungs with every breath the young man took. And he, Frieza, the ruthless tyrant, the executioner of his pupil�s woe, the ever-hated nemesis, would stop all this by taking his victim�s life�. And then by giving exactly what his victim craved for�he would finally be defeated. Defeated by a loathsome Saiyan. A whining and ungrateful child. A traitorous wolf dressed in sheep�s skin. He will not be defeated by Vegeta�. Enough of this weakness, this sickening passion for his rebellious pupil that made his heart bleed at night and his mind astray in dreams at day. This weakling was not worth his grief nor his compassion. The tiger will not be vanquished by a mere house cat delusioned enough to believe to be a lion. It was time to put an end to all this. "Vegeta!" His cold eyes spark to life with the same intensity seen in the eyes of the Saiyan, hatred was ignited and it was as all consuming as his victim�s. "I know that you want me to rid you of your worthless life, but I won�t. I will spare you from my wrath, not because I want to show you mercy or because I pity you�I�ve finally grown beyond that weakness now� " The electric cloud of energy touched Vegeta�s skin and the prince screamed in agony while it burned a deep dark welt in his skin till up to the bone with a sizzling sound. Vegeta could smell the sweet and sickening scent of his own incinerated flesh. A cold numbing feeling washed over him as he was reminded of his victims that he himself had send into an agonizing and horrific death by burning them alive. He had watched with depraved amusement how their bodies twisted in shocking movements as the flames burnt the flesh of their bones while they screamed in terror, begging for mercy that was never given. Would they be waiting for him in the afterlife? Would they now observe his suffering with the same wretched satisfaction like he once did? "I want you to stay alive my pupil.." The sharp pain created by Frieza�s ki traveled away from the freshly inflicted wound, and followed the hollow path of Vegeta�s collarbone, leaving a trace of fire behind his path of destruction. "You said that you�ve lost the ability to love because of me, and that you know nothing but hate. And now, by denying me everything what should have belonged to me, you yourself have taught me how to hate. I hate you enough to let you live Vegeta�Live with the memory of your humiliation�Live with the pain of once being violated like a helpless weak lamb ravished by wolfs!!" The blazing bright ball of light crawled up his shoulder like a serpent from hell, its trail of agony intensified by the very words of its creator. Vegeta minds raced as it tried to find order and reason in the total chaos of his consciousness, panic struck him as he realized what the grim tyrant was condemning him to�a life long of suffering from this devastating shame �a fate worse then death. "Kill me Frieza! Kill me if you have any honor left in that rotten soul of yours! Don�t let me live, kill me you fucking coward!!" But the relentless tyrant was immovable, nothing could bring his revengeful mind off its course. A cold, frozen smile appeared on his face. "I want you to remind this night my pupil�" He retained his energy and within a second, the blazing ball of roaring energy that could have cast death upon his victim was no more. With his long black fingernails, he traced the path of the injury. "This wound will heal in time, but the scar that will appear in its place will not." He dug his nail deep into the gaping hole and scraped red flesh from the blackened edges. As he saw his victim twist and cry in agony, satisfaction finally filled his evil and bitter heart. "The scar will remind you of me forever." He pulled the young warrior�s face close to his, holding Vegeta�s head by his hair in a violent grip. As he observed the trembling of his victim�s lips and his watery eyes, it was hard for him to determine if these were signs of fear or anger. It didn�t matter; he didn�t care any longer. With a low raspy whisper, his pushed his black lips upon his pupil�s ear and spoke the words that will haunt the Saiyan prince for the rest of his life. "I curse you." A mad and almost childish giggle came from the tyrant, but was soon subdued as he continued. "I curse you Vegeta, I condemn you to a long and agonizing life in which you�ll never be able to find your peace, where you�ll be continuously reminded of your shame every time you find the courage to take look at your own reflection. You�ll loathe yourself for what you truly are; a disobedient mongrel dog to its master, a string puppet at my command, and as you pointed out yourself, a sad duplicate of your most hated foe. With these wounds I have inflicted on you, you�ll never be able to truthfully free yourself from me! I�ve become a part of you that will eat away more and more of your life�s spirit with every day passed. And you won�t be able to end this torment that I bestow on you, because you�re too fearful of what will await you within the confines of hell. All those innocents you�ve slain, whose restless souls are hungering for the sweet taste of revenge are haunting you, aren�t they?" "You�ll become a martyr of your own sorrow and disgrace Vegeta�" The tyrant�s voice was channeling the message of damnation out of a dark and evil heart, reflecting its own insanity by pouring contagious madness into the ear of the beholder. "And you�ll stay alone for the rest of your miserable existence....Forever.." This was the final blow to Vegeta�s already crumbling sanity that pushed him over the edge. Suddenly, the numbed expression on the Saiyan�s face disappeared to be replaced with a mask of lunacy, his eyes showing white in terror and his reasoning was overtaken by blind hysteria. "N-No�You can�t do this to me! You hear me Frieza!? You fucking bastard!! You must end my agony!! Please!! End my life! Take it now�Don�t let me live in shame�please I beg you�as a defeated man to his master�have mercy on me�" The icejin looked at his pleading subject, his tears wounded him but his anger turned his heart into stone. He grabbed his subject by his chin and clenched his fingers deep into the flesh while he banged his head against the stone wall. "Should I be merciful to you like you�ve been to me you ungrateful DOG!? How dare you plead for mercy while you yourself know none! Eat the sour fruit of your work Vegeta! EAT TILL YOU CHOKE TO DEATH IN THEM!!" He let go of his victim, and watched him collapse on the floor, a quivering pile of misery maddened by sad desperation. There was no resemblance to the proud creature for whom he once longed so deeply. By his own hands, he had desecrated the young god he revered and had turned him into a begging slave. But his destruction did not raise any guilt or remorse in his blackened heart. Frieza had never known remorse for the weak, and weak is what his once precious prince had become. A broken stallion or a tamed lion were of no value in the tyrant�s eyes, and he no longer cared for his victim, dispatching him like a little child throwing away its toy after getting bored with it. He paced back to the cell entrance, a apathetic and relentless expression was carved on his face, his dark eyes sparkled wickedly. He addressed his two servants, who had been waiting for him outside of the prison cell in a cold and demanding voice. "Zarbon and Dodoria, see that his wounds get an opportunity to heal, put him into the regeneration tank and see that a physician take him into his care. I want his health to be fully restored to what it was before." The two servants nodded almost simultaneously as their cold master turned around and gazed at his mad and tormented prisoner, his black lips pulled back into a sadistic grin. "Once he is recovered, you have my permission to have your way with this traitor once more�" A wave of shear panic washed over the beaten prince and his expression was one of utter shock and despair. "No!! Please!! You can�t do this to me!! I rather die than go through that torment again!! Frieza!! Lord Frieza!! Please listen!! Listen and have mercy on the soul of your defeated slave�please!!" "and you may do to him whatever your wonderful fiendish minds desire, as long as he suffers of unspeakable tortures, my hunger for revenge will be stilled." "Please! I beg you! No more of this!! No more!! Please lord Frieza�You�ve always been merciful to me�be merciful once more and let me die an honorable death!! Kill me!! Burn me to death or slash my throat to drain me from my blood to silence your anger. Deny me my rights for a noble burial and dispatch my corpse in the wilderness to feed wild beasts and vultures. I don�t care!! As long as you let me die and spare me from more of these agonizing humiliations! Please! You owe this to me�After all that you�ve done to me you owe me this one last favor�" The last sentence came out in a soft pleading whisper. As the fallen prince begged at his feet, the cold tyrant stood unmoved like a stone statue, his uncharitable heart not even slightly touched by the pitiful words of his former god. He looked down at him, his eyes filled with disgust and contempt. "I don�t owe you anything Vegeta. You owe me. You owe me all the privileges that I�ve given you in exchange for the loyalty that you have refused to pay! From now on, you�ll be treated like anyother miserable worm who dares to oppose me. You�ll be removed from your rank and honor as a star fleet general and send on scouting duty as a common soldier together with those two retarded companions of yours. I can no longer tolerate the stench of your race near me, better to send you to the far corners of the galaxy before I�m tempted to make an early end to your miserable life and do you a favor. Now crawl away from me slave, or I will kick you�" But Vegeta didn�t move from his place as his misery had taken over his mind and frozen his body. With a sad and soft voice, he repeated his plead in an endless lament to his tormentor, hoping for his leniency, as if repeating these words on and on will shield him from his horrible fate. The bitter tyrant raised his foot and stroke out at Vegeta, his anger intensified as his victim tried to dodge his fiendish blow and clenched his hands around his legs in despair. "NO!! DON�T DO THIS TO ME!!!" "Move this piece of shit away from me!! NOW!!" His servants obeyed and the fallen prince was dragged away from the tyrant�s feet with brute force, but the sad and maddened man cried out his agony to his tormentor, pleading for release. His wounded body received painfull blows in his stomach, in his side and groin. Still, these physical suffering could no longer confine his rambling mind. "What!? No mercy from my socalled mentor!? No pardon from my fatherlike substitute!? WHERE IS THE COMPASSION YOU�VE CLAIMED TO FEEL FOR ME FRIEZA?!!! You monster!! You�re nothing but a cold heartless reptile with a deceptive serpent tongue!! You son of a fucking lizard whore!!" The cold tyrant ignored the rambling of his crazed victim and left the darkness of the prison cell while his servants took the prisoner away towards the recovery chamber, hauling him trough the corridors while they tried to stifle his mad screams in vain. "You�ll be sorry for this Frieza!! Letting me live out my torment will one day seal your doom!! I will destroy you, just as you�ve destroyed me!! That scar will remind me of this vow and I won�t rest till your rotting corpse is buried six feet under and is fully digested and crapped out by worms!! Hear me Frieza, and remember this�remember my words on the day when you find yourself defeated by a super Saiyan, remember them at your slow and painful death and may they torment you while you burn in hell!!" Frieza watched in silent anger as Zarbon finally silenced the lunatic with a violent blow at the back the head. Vegeta�s eyes rolled back in their sockets and his body sank towards floor like a lifeless string puppet abandoned by its master. "Thank God it helped, I thought the bloody little rat will never shut up! You�re all right master Frieza?" "I�m fine Zarbon�.Just remove this madman out of my sight�His very presence sickens me." Zarbon grabbed the unconscious prince by his arms and threw the bleeding body over his shoulder. The blood dripping from Vegeta�s wounds stained the obedient warrior�s braided hair and painted crimson roses on his cape. His master gazed at the stains with an oblivious fog in his eyes and his hand reached out hesitatingly to touch it, but retreated as he noticed that his loyal subject and beloved friend was looking at him. "Are you sure Sir�Are you really feeling alright?" There was sincere concern sounding in Zarbon�s voice that lifted some of the heavy weight that was crushing his heart. it made the icejin feel slightly better abouthis fiendish deeds. At least one person in the galaxy didn�t believe him to be as cold and evil as the Saiyan prince did. "Really, I am fine Zarbon�You don�t have to worry about me�From this day on, this piece of Saiyan scum will mean nothing to me. I�ll let him live. Let him carry on with his pathetic live, hiding underneath my shadows. But he better doesn�t oppose me in anyway or I will crush him. I will crush him like a insect without any remorse...." Zarbon sighed of relief after hearing his master�s words, he was worried that Frieza might still have a soft spot for Vegeta, even after all these apocalyptic events. He gave his secret lover a quick nod to make clear he understood, and turned around, carrying away the fallen prince to endure his ultimate punishment; to life a live without hope of release from the hated tyrant�s restrains, even after his nemesis�s death. "Do you hear me Vegeta�you mean nothing to me�nothing�." The soft whisper that escaped the icejin�s lips was almost inaudible, but sounded determined and convincing to himself. Years from now, when the cold tyrant is finally meeting his doom in a distant and strange world by the hands of a mystical Saiyan fighter, this lament will run trough mind after he takes the life of his beloved prince. He had always been a good liar. Epilogue The sun was already raising as Bulma�s tears finally dried up. She had wept all night and her throat had become dry while she felt light in her head. She knew that it was probably due to fatigue, but she refused to go to sleep. She didn�t want to dream about him. It�s bad enough that she couldn�t banish him out of her conscious mind, let alone what sad dreams her rambling would bring if she was no longer in control. She stared at the first sunlight piercing through the closed curtains, her eyes dim and her senses numbed, when someone knocked softly on her bedroom door. Bulma wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her nightgown, it couldn�t be Vegeta knocking on her door, that would be too good to be true. But still, if it was the Prince of Jerks she didn�t want him to see her in tears about him. "Come in." Her voice trembled, although she tried her best to sound calm. She was pleasantly surprised when her visitor opened the door to a chink and hide himself behind the heavy oaken door, hesitating to enter. "Bulma?" Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that it was indeed her Vegeta who was standing there. "V-Vegeta? I thought you said you didn�t want to see me anymore.." The door opened and he stood there in silence, his eyes drawn to the floor, his hands held behind his back. He looked like a shy schoolboy who had to see his teacher and Bulma had to suppress a smile seeing her brave Saiyan prince like this. However she forced herself to regain her angry posture. If he was here to apologize to her, fine, but don�t count on a smooth comeback for his Royal Highness. "What do you want? Are you here to bug me again about how I should share my sheets with Yamcha? Well let me tell you something mister! Yamcha may be an average fighter but he is�" "I�ve never said that." "At least not a insensitive alien basta�" Bulma paused her angry rambling and looked at him, puzzled. "What did you say?" "I�ve never said I didn�t want to see you again. I mean, I had thought about it last night. Going away from here and leaving you behind. It would have made things so much easier for me." "Well, why didn�t you? It�s not that you�ll be missed around here! You�re always locking yourself up in the gravity room anyway!" "I just couldn�t. I had packed my stuff and was ready to fly off out of the window, but then I thought about how it would be, my life without you here to drive me nuts every day. It would be boring and meaningless." The faintest of smiles appeared on Bulma�s face. She couldn�t help but to feel her anger subside by his words. This wasn�t exactly the Great Revelation of Love that she had been longing to hear from him, but face it, the man standing in front of her was VEGETA. This was probably the best she ever was going to get out of him. She looked at him, her marine blue eyes glow in the reflection of warm sunlight. "Glad you admit to that, but you�re driving me nuts too you know. What got into you last night?" Vegeta hesitated to answer her. He didn�t want upset her again, but he just couldn�t explain to her what was wrong. He wasn�t ready to share the nightmares of his past with her. Not yet at least� "You shouldn�t asked me about that scar, that�s what got into me!" He forced his chin up as he finally found enough courage to look his lover in the eyes. If only she could understand him! If only she could look pass that angry and cold surface and see how hurt and broken he really was. If she could see how much he really needed her. Then there might be a chance for them both� She observed her lover�s face, his eyes were so dim, his skin so pale and he looked so tired as though he hadn�t slept all night. She realized that their argument didn�t mean nothing to him, he did indeed care about her. But there was also something else that struck her. For the first time since she knew him he had a strange sad look in his eyes. As she realized that it was his hidden sorrow what she saw in these endless dark pools, she knew that it was wrong to have asked him about that scar. That, and the memories that were connected to it, were some of her prince�s dark secrets that had wounded him so deeply that he wasn�t able to share them with anybody. Maybe with time passed she could earn his trust and then she would finally be able to lift some of the heavy burdens off his shoulders that he insisted on carrying alone. But for now, it was too early to ask him to show his hidden pain to her. She sighed as she finally started to understand him, this sad and angry man with whom she had fallen so deeply in love with. And all was forgiven. He feels emotions flow The sun is raising slow And makes her blue eyes glow He just wants her to know� This is a place for an end Where it a all begins again And what he�s about to say Scares him in a way But I know he�ll be all right If he could shut up tonight And just hold her tight - hold her tight - ^_~ -The End - Please be a responsible reader and review my story, I don�t earn my living with writing fics (and I probably should not give up my daytime job for this either!) but I do enjoy good feedback. Let me know that I�m not typing this nonsense all for myself!! Besides, with a bit more encouragement I might even get out of my writer�s block and Finish the sequel on this that I�ve started working on previously! Cheers pan |