Protege | By : chitheinsanewriter Category: Dragon Ball Z > General Views: 1003 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own DragonballZ, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Chapter Seven - Meeting at Midnight
(One week later)
Chi stepped into her tiny room and heaved a sigh of relief as the door slid shut behind her with a soft hiss, leaving her alone in the gloom within. Life aboard a starship was certainly not as easy as it seemed on TV. Her training was intense, one could almost say brutal and Chi often found herself wondering, if she would even survive to see another day. In fact, today was the first day since Frieza had started training her that she hadn’t wound up in a regen tank and even then Chi was sure that that was only because Frieza had been called away in the middle of the sparring session (or as she preferred to think of it; he beat her senseless while she tried futilely to stay conscious for as long as she possibly could).
She couldn’t help but be thankful that there had been an emergency, she’d already been in the tanks three times in this first week alone, and that was more than enough time for her to learn that she hated the damn contraptions. Sure they saved your life, but they were so damn small that you couldn’t help but feel claustrophobic and sometimes you got scared that they might never let you out or that the oxygen would fail and you’d drown or something else as equally unpleasant. Then there was that infernal beeping at the end of the cycle which was supposed to summon the damn medic but sometimes they were just so goddamn slow about opening the tank, which of course led to the unreasoning fears, which in turn led to a state of near-panic.
And the doctors wondered why most of their patients were so bad tempered after a stint in the regen tanks.
Sighing to herself, Chi walked across the small, dimly lit chamber and knelt on her bed, pressing her face against the coolness of the plasglass window and staring morosely out at the stars passing by. Somewhere out there amongst those twinkling points of light drifted the cold remains of her home, the cold remains of her life. A life that had been firmly wrenched from her hands, a life that she would never be able to go back to.
Finally, unable to bear the silence and the tortured thoughts running through her mind, Chi lay down and allowed exhaustion-induced unconsciousness to claim her, hoping to find peace in the black, unthinking void of sleep. But that night, like every other night since she’d been brought aboard Frieza’s ship, she was to find no solace in sleep.
Visions of horribly mutilated people chased her through wild scenes that made no sense. Captain Ginyu jeered at her as Purtan’s blood stained her hands. Terrifying, disjointed images of blood and fire filled her mind along with the agonised screams of the dying. Then all fell silent.
Then she heard a noise…it sounded like…yes it was! Someone was calling to her. She turned and saw her parents beckoning, outstretching their arms to her in love. Chi’s expression became one of pure joy and she ran towards them, certain that everything was going to be ok. As she came within a metre of them, Chayla and Daemon’s faces became hideously warped masks and their voices become cold, evil cackles. Daemon lifted a hand to his neck and pulled his head off while Chayla slumped forward a bloody mess. Chi gagged and turned away to come face to face with Frieza. "The perfect minion" he exclaimed triumphantly, his hands reaching out to seize her and trap her forever, his laugh low and evil…
"NO!" Chielle screamed waking in a cold sweat, her heart racing frantically in her chest. She drew in a deep, shuddering breath and hugged her knees tightly to her chest. "It was only a dream" she told herself sternly. "Only a dream, dreams can’t hurt you!"
Breathing heavily, Chi finally managed to quieten her heartbeat to a normal rate as she lay down and tried to go back to sleep but after a while of lying awake and staring at the ceiling, she decided that it was useless and got up. She crept out into the dark hall, one destination clear in her mind as her stomach rumbled its agreement.
This late at night the ship’s fat and lazy cook would be sound asleep and well away from his domain, leaving it free for Chi to pilfer.
Keeping to the shadows Chi moved stealthily down the hall and slipped into the kitchen. Once there she began raiding the cupboards for something edible but after a while it became blatantly obvious that she wasn’t going to find anything. Snarling slightly with frustration, Chi gave up on finding something ready-to-eat and began hunting down the ingredients for pancakes instead.
A little while later she was standing over a heated frying pan and expertly flipping the moist rich batter into golden brown pancakes. She hummed softly to herself, focusing completely on making sure that every pancake was golden brown to stop herself from thinking too deeply about how quickly her life had changed and to stop herself from worrying about her future. She flipped the last pancake onto the stack just as someone sneezed from the shadows and the hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she sensed the mystery person’s presence. Chi raised the frying pan defensively, "Who’s there?" she called to the unknown stranger…
And a low sinister laugh answered her query. "So, somebody tell me. What is Frieza’s newest project doing in the kitchen at 3am in the morning when it is obviously way past her bedtime?" Vegeta, a wide smirk plastered upon his face, strode into the tiny circle of light cast by the lamp Chi had lit to see by, followed closely by a tall warrior with a wild mane of dark hair that reached past his knees. "She appears to be making your breakfast my prince." The tall warrior suggested slyly, eyeing the pancakes openly. Chi opened her mouth to voice a protest but stayed quiet when she realised that she wasn’t really in any position to argue. With one shout Vegeta could bring almost the whole ship running and get Chi into major trouble.
With a defeated sigh Chi put the frying pan back on the element, gestured for the two young men to sit down and help themselves then busied herself with cooking the rest of the batter (which she’d intended to set aside for later use). After a few minutes of silence, Chi’s sharp hearing picked up their muted conversation. "Well I’ll be damned Radditz, the gaki can cook!"
"It is rather good my Prince…" Chi shrugged slightly and silently berated herself for eavesdropping. She picked up the fresh batch of pancakes and wordlessly set it in front of Vegeta and Radditz - who dug in almost immediately - then shuffled back behind the counter, filled the sink and started doing the dishes.
For a long while the only sounds were the clink of dishes and the guys’ noisy chewing, then all went silent again. Vegeta took this moment to study the girl whom Frieza had taken such an interest in. Her shoulders were slumped, her head was bowed, her face pale and her hands were shaking so badly that she was having trouble holding the dishes without dropping them. Vegeta frowned; this wasn’t the creature that had attacked him earlier in the week, this wasn’t that demon child - or was it?
"Gaki come here" Vegeta ordered and Chi reluctantly walked over and stood beside his chair, one hand resting lightly on her hip. "What happened to you? Why are you here? What happened to the little monster that bit me earlier?" Chi’s lips twitched briefly upwards in a smile…but only briefly. She looked down at her hands then back up at Vegeta with a cool, level gaze. "Let’s see, girl lives on planet, men attack planet, Frieza kills girls mother, girl defeats Ginyu force, Zarbon beheads girl’s father in front of girl, girl captured by Frieza, watches home get blown up, end story." Chi’s tone was harsh and bitter and at the end she looked away, but not before Vegeta saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes.
He was about to say something when Chi cut in quickly "I really must go to bed. It is way past my bedtime after all." And with that Chi swept from the kitchen and down the hall, the door swinging softly shut behind her. Vegeta leaned back in his chair and stared at the door as if he expected her to come back. "It takes a while to sink in doesn’t it Radditz?" he asked his companion quietly.
"What does my Prince?"
"The loss of everything, your entire life as you knew it." Radditz nodded.
"Aye it does my Prince, especially at such a young age."
"She has a lot in common with us then doesn’t she Radditz?"
"Yes, and even I am forced to admit that she will make a fine warrior some day - if she lives that long. She had better learn to hide her emotions, you would know best my Prince where Frieza stands on emotions." Vegeta merely nodded.
"So she had better learn and learn fast, for her sake." Radditz finished.
"For her sake," Vegeta echoed, his eyes still riveted thoughtfully on the door.
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