Freeza's Rule

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Raditz felt the crunch of the other soldier’s nose breaking beneath his fist. It was an up and down feeling. He had been imaging Nappa’s face on the other soldier, so punching him felt had good. The bad part came with particular soldier being one of few who was friendly to Raditz and breaking his nose, however accidental, might change that. He froze in a fighting stance, not willing to insult the other alien by checking to see if he was alright, but he backed up few feet.

“You still able to fight, Jeor” he called out in taunting voice

The other fighter sat up and smiled at him. “Naw, I’ll let you have that one,” he said picking himself up of the ground. “I just can’t keep up with a saiyan,” he continued reaching out to shake Raditz’s hand. Raditz took it gratefully, though they only been sparing it had been an intense one, Raditz had been sure he would lose. He had lost all his other matches against Jeor so far, he had gotten lucky.

“It was a lucky shot,” Raditz said, conceding to the truth.

“No way, you’ve definitely gotten much stronger since our last spar,” insisted Jeor. His statement struck Raditz as odd.

“I don’t think I’ve gotten any stronger, in fact I’m surprised my power level hasn’t dropped lately,” he told the other soldier. Jeor looked surprised.

Don’t you measure your power level?” he asked

“No, what’s the point? I know Nappa’s just went up by 40 and Vegeta’s just shot up another 60. I guess I maybe gained 10 or 15,” said Raditz

Jeor tapped on his scouter. “Your power level has gone up by 50 since the last time we spared, that’s amazing growth,” said Jeor. His amphibian like eyes widening in his excitement. They continued walking out of the sparing hall, headed toward the med bay. Jeor’s species healed quickly enough, much faster than a saiyan, but a broken bone that healed wrong would have to be broken again.

“You must be reading that wrong, in our last mission I was nearly killed by a native, a farmer by the looks of him, not even one of their warriors. If Nappa hadn’t thrown that wild Ki blast I’d probably be dead now,” explained Raditz

“That’s because Prince Vegeta only accepts the toughest jobs, they pay better but there is a reason why. My team would have never taken on that Planet Hoose job for any amount, that planet was full of strong beasts, we’d’ve collapsed under the pressure of the gravity alone,” said Jeor. The two continued on as Raditz fell into a contemplative silence.

“Raditz!” yelled a voice behind him. It was enough to shake Raditz out of his thoughts. Both he and Jeor turned to see Nappa striding towards them. “Get lost lizard,” he shot at Jeor when he got to them. Raditz waved his friend off when it seemed he would try to defy Nappa and the amphibian left them.

“I was on my way to the med bay,” explained Raditz, cursing himself inwardly that he felt the need to justify himself to Nappa. It didn’t help that half the base already had some strange idea that Nappa owned him.

“You’re barely scratched you little wuss,” said Nappa. “I bet if I killed your lizard friend you’d cry about it, you’re always crying anyway but what can you expect from a breeder,”

A strange but familiar mix of fear and anger shot through Raditz but he didn’t let it show. Nappa was always threatening to kill anyone willing to talk to him for more than five minutes without threatening or degrading him. Raditz learned to tell when the threat was just a threat and when it was really a warning.

“He’s a good sparring partner,” stated Raditz trying to keep his voice as even as possible. He wouldn’t let Nappa rile him.

“Sure, how many times have you let him mount you?” accused Nappa with a sneer. Raditz bristled and glared at Nappa.

“You do realize that his species reproduces externally, correct?” shot Raditz. He enjoyed the confused look that passed Nappa’s face before taking pity on the giant idiot.

“He doesn’t have any balls or any of the related equipment,” he explained more simply.

“I knew that, I’m not stupid,” Nappa insisted, unfortunately Raditz’s disbelief in that statement must have shown on his face and he found himself shoved harshly in the wall. “I wonder how you found that out, trying to whore yourself out for favor no doubt,” accused Nappa again as he held Raditz in place with one meaty hand.

Raditz rolled his eyes. “No actually, I inferred that information as he was telling me about the mate and children he lost,” he told Nappa. Nappa let go, allowing Raditz to peel himself away from the wall. He was still angry, glaring down at the long haired male. With growl he turned away as he was going to walk away but Raditz braced himself anyway. Just as he thought, Nappa pivoted around too quickly for Raditz block and punched him in the face.

Raditz flew back into the wall again and slid down into a sitting position clutching his abused face, but he could only glare at Nappa as he walked away smirking. He could feel the hot heat of anger bubbling up in the pit of his stomach but he reminded himself that against Nappa he was nothing, nothing but a low class.

The next day Jeor approached him again.

“I want you to join our crew for a mission,” he said brightly. Raditz could only stare in disbelief so Jeor continued.

“Lord Freeza has already said that your regular crew won’t be receiving any missions for the next few months, this is a quick one, its estimated at 15 days. I even put in the official request already, it was approved,” he said

Finally gathering his wits Raditz replied,”Vegeta would never let me work with another crew,”

“If the request was approved he had to have already seen it as your crew leader,” countered the amphibian. Raditz shrugged.

“Well, if Vegeta’s already approved,”

“Great get your gear, we leave in six hours,” said Jeor running off.

At launch time Raditz met Jeor and his two crew members at the launch bay, he had managed to avoid running into Nappa. One of the crew members was the same type of alien as Jeor, the other was something like a brown skinned, four armed, squid-like alien. They nodded to Raditz as the boarded their pods, and Raditz boarded his last.

They arrive at the specified planet and went straight to work, although an extermination mission was never fun, this was to fun as one could get. It was easy, nothing like the missions he usually went on with Vegeta but he still found himself turning and expecting to see either Nappa or Vegeta. Their second night on the planet they stood on a high mountain looking over one of the planets largest cities, watching as their military put together its first coordinated retaliatory efforts.

Raditz had to fight not to look up at the moon, it was out every two days on this planet, but Jeor had shared that Oozuru transformation would not be a good idea. They fought strategic battles against the alien army, crippling them slowly but surely. Raditz learned much from Hui, the four armed alien about planetary tactics. Although they were wanted by every citizen of the planet, Raditz slept peaceably at night without Nappa lurking nearby. They finished the mission early, 6 days instead of the estimated 15, and the crew gave most of the credit to Raditz. The sent a report by scooter and went to a nearby planet for celebratory drinks.

“So, Raditz want to join us permanently?” asked Hui over the second round of drinks. Raditz was glad he’d just drained his cup or else it might have come flying out. He wanted to join, the mission hadn’t been as life threatening as he was used to but it had still been challenging. He hadn’t spent his nights looking over his shoulder as to Nappa’s location, or walking on thin ice around Vegeta. He’d formed an instant camaraderie with Jeor’s crew members one that hadn’t formed in the years he’d been working with the other two. He wanted to join, he should.

“I can’t, I can’t abandon my crew,” he heard himself say. The others gave him a sad smile but left the subject alone.

When they exited the bar and were ready to board their pods and head back to Freeza #1,Nappa was waiting. Raditz headed straight to him, hoping to get whatever set the behemoth off out of the way quickly. The others shot dark looks toward the bald saiyan. When Raditz reached him Nappa grasped his arm in a tight grip but before Raditz could demand to be let go Nappa shot three ki blasts, one at each crew member killing them and destroying their pods.

“What, why, are you crazy?” sputtered Raditz as he tried in vain to pull away. Nappa smirked in response.

“No, you are if you really thought I’d let you get away from me that easy, you’re a saiyan, you belong with your own kind, have some pride,” said Nappa shaking him by his captured arm. The harsh words died on Raditz tongue as he saw the crazed possessive glint in Nappa’s eyes, it didn’t scare him, it froze him to his core.

“Let me go,” he pleaded, pulling once more at his arm. Nappa pulled him closer in an embrace so warm, it was mocking.

“Never,” he whispered into the shell of Raditz’s ear.