Vejita rocked nervously in the large chair, his arms wrapped around his knees, which were pressed tightly against his chest. Both Nappa and Raditz had returned recently from sparring. One sat on the couch and the other in a chair similar to Vejita’s.
The prince was more worried than ever and rarely left their quarters. It had been five days and none of them had seen or even heard from Kakarotto. Vejita had at first thought that Freeza had sent him away, but the bond they now shared told him otherwise. He seemed to be able to feel the other Saiyajin and knew that he remained on the large ship. If only he knew where, but it was hard for him to concentrate on anything with the pounding headache he’d been experiencing.
Nappa was worried too. In the past few days he’d seen sides of his prince that he’d never seen before. The young man was worried sick much like a mother would be over her missing child. Nappa knew, from word of mouth, that a bond was very powerful. In a situation such as this, where the mated are separated, extreme depression was expected.
"Maybe we should go looking for him." Raditz suggested, making the statement sound much more like a question. He’d been quite furious over the news of the mating, but he wasn’t sure of anything anymore. All he knew was that his little brother was missing, Vejita was worried sick, which was a rare thing, and they had to do something.
"And where would we look? Freeza’s quarters?" Nappa said, trying to make the younger bodyguard realize how foolish it was to have suggested such a thing.
"We have to find him! There's no telling what could have happened!"
"Freeza has Kakarotto somewhere. He’s doing this because he found out about our mating. I know it. It’s all my fault. Poor Kakarotto is probably getting the beating of a lifetime." Vejita muttered.
"He couldn't break my brother, Vejita," Raditz said reassuringly, "Kakarotto has more spirit than that."
Vejita was about to tell Raditz to just shut up when the door to their quarters suddenly slid open and something was thrown in by the scruff of its neck. The three Saiyajin were on their feet in seconds.
"Fuck!" Vejita’s eyes were wide in horror as his exclamation hung in the stunned air.
Raditz, as soon as he realized who had just been tossed into their room, let out a gasp and crab walked closer to the body to confirm what his eyes were telling his brain.
The prince took his eyes off the body and furiously gazed up at Zarbon, who stood staring at them just outside their room with a smirk on his face.
"Perhaps if Lord Freeza had tasted Saiyajin before, he wouldn't have been as hard on this one."
"Get out." Vejita said as he stepped forward, snarling.
Zarbon sighed and left. The door slid silently closed behind him. For a moment, they all simply stared at the bloody body lying on the dull metal floor.
Vejita slowly dropped to his knees, gently turning Kakarotto over, causing a moan to rise. The little sound echoed through the silent room. Now they could see what exactly had been done to the boy. His face looked like it had been bashed many times. His arms were bruised and scraped, as were the exposed portions of his legs. They could see, through the tears in his shredded clothing, bruises on the teenager's abs, stomach, and chest. And Vejita could tell, from the tears along the seams of his pants and the immense amount of blood, that he had been raped.
"Shit." The prince muttered, moving forward and pulling the boy's upper body into his lap. Kakarotto's eyes slowly fluttered open as Vejita brushed blood-matted hair out of his eyes. The pain and utter shame in the boy's eyes brought stinging rage to the prince’s eyes. This was far worse than anything he had imagined.
"Jita… I'm sorry."
"What for? You did nothing." The prince said, shaking his head, not comprehending.
"I wasn't strong enough to stop him." The boy sputtered.
"Oh, Chibi… It’s not your fault." Vejita said, struggling to keep his emotions in check.
"Jita… He…" Kakarotto said, looking up and making eye contact with his lover. He paused what he was saying as the painful memories washed back over him, causing him to remember the physical pain, and he winced. After a few short moments, he looked up to try and continue explaining, but Vejita interrupted.
"Shhh… I know. Don't say anything." The prince watched sadly as the boy struggled against crying, but with a choked sob, Kakarotto lost the battle. Vejita hugged the young Saiyajin to him as he sobbed. The prince then glanced up at the others.
"Raditz, run a warm bath. Nappa, get some new clothes. Make sure to get one of his gis; a uniform may not be very comfortable." The prince said, thinking aloud as he gave his commands. Quickly, the bodyguards nodded and set off to do as they were told.
Vejita turned back to the boy. Normally, he would bellow, "Saiyajin don’t cry, boy!" but the circumstances proved him wrong. It was hard for him to even imagine what horrors his simple, innocent mate had been through.
"The bath is ready." Raditz said as he stepped back into the room to see the prince peering into his little brother’s eyes. He was still disturbed by the idea of the homosexual mating and the fact that his brother wasn’t dominant, but he knew that now was hardly the time for that.
"Help me with him." Together, they carried Kakarotto into the bathroom and stripped him. Knowing Kakarotto did not have the strength to even hold himself up in the bath, Vejita kicked off his boots and threw his gloves down before climbing into the warm, hopefully soothing water.
Raditz couldn’t take it. He’d never seen a warrior so defeated, and his brother was among the strongest in the universe. Without a word he stood and stepped out of the room.
Vejita couldn’t blame the young bodyguard. It was quite amazing that Kakarotto was alive at all, judging from the amount of blood. The prince was highly disturbed by how quiet the boy was and by the way his eyes stared at nothing. Sitting on the edge of the large tub, Vejita leaned down and rubbed the stained water over his mate’s chest and arms.
As Raditz stepped into the common room, Nappa stepped out of the bedroom shared by the prince and Kakarotto, carrying a folded blue gi.
Vejita turned his head towards the open doorway to see Nappa entering with the clothing he’d requested. The two of them shared a sad look before Nappa silently turned and left. Vejita heard the two bodyguards sitting in the common room quietly talking. With his Saiyajin hearing he was quite capable of picking up on every word of the conversation and knew well that Kakarotto could too. The prince ran a hand over the boy’s forehead as he heard Nappa mutter, "Kami, Raditz, the water’s dark red."
Vejita glanced down. The water was indeed dark red. It had turned his blue uniform into a dark, murky brown. The prince glanced back at the boy, scared of the terrible wounds he would find. To his surprise, the wounds looked like they were already healing. There had just been so much dried blood. The most surprising wound was the boy's tail. Rage doubled itself deep inside the prince, but he kept calm, knowing full well that getting angry would only upset his mate.
He knew that his lover would be fine, physically. All he really needed was rest. Lifting Kakarotto out of the tub, he used his ki to dry them both rather quickly. The boy was able to stand wobbly and held onto the prince as he stepped into the warm gi Vejita held out for him. Vejita tied a white sash snuggly around his mate’s waste to keep his gi up. He could tell that the boy was having trouble standing as the grip on his shoulder tightened. Gently, the prince lifted the boy into his arms and carried him to the bed they shared.
"Chibi, sleep." He whispered as he tucked the boy in, watching as he fell into an instant slumber.
"What’s the overall damage?" Nappa questioned, watching as his prince stepped into the common room, flopping down angrily onto the couch. He could see that his prince’s teeth were tightly clinched by the obvious tightening in his jaw.
"From what I can tell… Every… Every vertebrae in his tail has been crushed, he’s been severely beaten, but that's healing… And… It seems he's been raped… Repeatedly." He knew that the two Saiyajin’s mouths were hanging open before he looked up. They both had known of the beating and rape… But the boy’s tail… Never had such a thing been done to a Saiyajin. It was the cruelest thing any of them could think of. The tail of a Saiyajin was so sensitive… Vejita knew now that his mate had experienced pain he would never know.
"How… How is he?" Raditz asked, looking up shamefully. This shouldn’t have happened. He was Kakarotto’s bodyguard. He should have accompanied the boy to Freeza’s quarters.
"I know you probably want to speak with him, but he’s sleeping. He needs to rest," Vejita said, suddenly realizing how scared the boy would be to wake and be alone, "I… I should go to sleep as well. I don’t want him to be alone right now."
"But… But what are we going to do? Shouldn’t we confront Freeza as soon as possible?" Raditz blurted as his prince stood.
"No. Kakarotto was the strongest of us. Have you forgotten? Take a look at him; he can’t even stand! It would be quite pointless for us to do anything! I don’t want you saying a word about this! You either," Vejita said through a growl, turning to look at Nappa, the volume of his voice growing along with the rage he’d been trying so hard to control, "Let’s keep this quiet. Surely, Zarbon and Dodoria are going to be troublesome, but I don’t want either of you starting anything with them." Suppressing his rage again, the prince turned and stepped into the room he and Kakarotto shared. He had to think of a way to get back at Freeza for this, but for now they had to keep calm.
Vejita paused as he stepped into the room, leaving the door open. He lifted a hand to rub his temples with his thumb and index finger. The pulsing headache he’d been having for the past several days had returned again. Too much had happened today. Kakarotto was in so much emotional pain that it was pressing against Vejita's skull, and he knew that it was the bond.
The bright lights of the common room dimly lighted the room. Vejita stepped over to his closet and dug around until he found a pair of black spandex pants. After peeling his stained uniform off, he slipped into the clean pair of pants. He felt that the boy would be more comfortable with them both clothed rather than their usual nudity. Then, the prince became aware of his senses and realized that the once blue uniform he’d been wearing was filling the room with the scent of dirty, watered down blood. Ignoring both Nappa and Raditz, he tramped into the washroom, and tossed the filthy uniform into the garbage.
Once back in the company of his mate, Vejita climbed into the warm bed, leaving the door open as a sort of night light. Before long, he had his arms wrapped comfortably around his mate and was sleeping peacefully.
****
A large white hand grabbed Kakarotto’s throat, throwing him to the ground. There were ripping and breaking sounds followed by pain. Kakarotto heard his own scream as blood filled his vision. A burning pain ran deep inside of him causing him to gasp for air, but the air was suddenly gone, replaced with more blood, and he was drowning.
Kakarotto sat up quickly, feeling much more than sore. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He should have known. The dream. It had been warning him all along, yet he’d taken no heed.
"What is it?" Vejita questioned quickly when he felt his lover pull out of his embrace.
"That dream… The same one I’ve had all my life…" Kakarotto began, lying back down as he snuggled against his prince, "It was about me bein’ attacked and… Raped by some white monster. I just figured out that I was bein’ raped in the dream a while back… Then, it happened. I’m so stupid. I should have figured it out."
"Shhh… There’s nothing we can do now. What’s done is done. I’m going to kill Freeza for ever thinking of touching you, but for now, we all need to train. We’re not strong enough yet." Vejita explained, hoping to calm his mate. He let a hand trail down the boy’s cotton covered back, rubbing soothing patterns on the warm fabric. Soon, he gained a steady purr from the boy and smiled lightly.
"Jita…" the younger Saiyajin whispered.
"Hn?"
"Be here when I wake up?"
"Of course." The prince answered, kissing the boy’s forehead just before they both drifted off to sleep again.
