Arrah ate her steak and took another nap, leaving the three men to their own devices for a while.

Raditz left to return to Jel's to collect up some things for Arrah and Vegeta and Nappa kept vigil in her room. Piaf's nurse returned with Arrah's appendix in a jar and left it in the prince's care.

Vegeta examined the fleshy extract with deep interest, rotating the little glass container in his hand. He saw the tear Piaf had mentioned and absently thought how lucky Arrah had been. From the claw marks on her body and the infection that had quickly spread, things could have been far worse. Maybe they would have been had she not been a saiyan, with their powerful immune systems.

Nappa watched Arrah sleep. The nurse had said that Arrah would be released the next day after Piaf had made one more set of checks. The stitches would dissolve on their own but she'd need to take a course of antibiotics to make sure her body remained infection free. That was reassuring to the oldest saiyan. As proud as he was that she'd come through her first real fight alive, the thought of her succumbing to her injuries had been unnerving. She was a saiyan though and she'd pulled through. She'd be tougher next time.

It occurred to both him and Vegeta that she'd need to begin training in earnest once she felt better. It wasn't even a question that they'd protect her, they'd do it as much as they'd need to but it couldn't hurt if she could defend herself. Raditz had told them that she'd begun to channel Ki in moments of heightened emotion. It was definitely a start but she'd need to learn to channel at will.

The door hissed open and Raditz re-entered. No one spoke and Vegeta didn't even look up from the jar in his hand to acknowledge the fellow saiyan. Raditz dropped a kit bag down to the floor in front of the bed and crouched to rummage through it.

Nappa was only watching him with vague interest until he pulled out a pair of white boots with yellow toe caps. He followed them with a pair of hand guards, a black bodysuit and, finally, a set of upper body armour similar to the first set they'd given her on Gi's ship, only this set fastened over both shoulders instead of one.

"So that's where you've been..." Vegeta commented, sounding only slightly interested. He'd finally turned his attention to the older saiyan.

"I asked Jel to get it for her." Raditz muttered. "She sent a couple of the girls out to get it at the markets."

"We were gonna get her some..." Nappa frowned but couldn't argue too much. At least she had something to put on now.

As if reading his mind, Vegeta answered. "At least she has armour now. We don't need to worry about it. She couldn't walk out of here in a medical gown."

Raditz set the armour down in front of the bed ready for Arrah when she was finally given the all clear and then stood with a grunt.

He could feel the start of a headache behind his eyes and he was tired as hell. Since finding out Arrah had disappeared from the brothel, he'd run ragged all over Zula in a blind panic. It was as if she'd disappeared without a trace. The revelation that Sabine, the blue prostitute, had been involved with her kidnapping was enough to make him burst a blood vessel.

Upon returning to Jel's, Raditz had found that she too, had disappeared. But he suspected her disappearance was more to save her own skin than anything.

The Madam had been informed of the goings on in her establishment before Raditz collected a couple things from their room. He'd left Jel to tear her brothel apart looking for the little viper and hurried back to Piaf's offices.

"What's that?"

Nappa pushed off the wall and walked over to the bag beside the armour at the base of the bed. He bent down and pulled out a wrapped package.

"Oh, it's her lizard. I thought she'd want it..." Raditz trailed off, his face feeling hot.

Nappa unwrapped it and eyed the dead lizard with a sneer. "Yep. That's a dead lizard alright..."

Vegeta was on his feet and in front of Nappa in seconds and took the jar from the bigger man's hands without Nappa even uttering a word. The prince turned away from the other two and stood holding the lizard up to the light. He looked at it with the same deep fascination that Arrah often did. Raditz and Nappa knew Vegeta could get very deep into things that piqued his interest. The taxidermy stall in Zula's market was one of those things.

He looked at it for a long time, Nappa and Raditz looking at one another and shrugging at the prince's fixated interest.

Finally lowering the jar, Vegeta turned back to Arrah in the bed and walked to the bedside table where he placed it down with great care. He let his eyes linger on the dead lizard before they found their way to Arrah, fast asleep next to him in the bed.

"Hey, maybe we could get her another one to cheer her up?" Nappa suggested halfheartedly. As soon as the suggestion had left his mouth, he felt like a bit of a fool, especially when Raditz pulled a face and shuddered beside him.

"Does she really need more dead things?" Raditz blurted.

"I'll go as soon as the sun is up."

The two larger saiyans looked over at Vegeta, their eyebrows raised in curiosity. Vegeta? Doing something selfless? Raditz was the first to let the suspicion slide into his expression, Nappa following soon after.

"Why you?" Raditz asked.

"Do you want to go poking around the taxidermy stall?" Vegeta snapped. He saw the disgusted look that passed over Raditz's face and knew the answer.

"Alright, fine. I'll go with you." Nappa sighed.

"No. Stay here with the girl." Vegeta insisted and moved back to his seat. He picked up the appendix he'd placed down on the floor and returned to put it next to the lizard on the bedside table.

"Vegeta..." Nappa started but Vegeta sent him a scathing look.

"Stay here."

-oOo-

Vegeta was early. Most of the stallholders hadn't even finished setting up yet as he began to walk the streets of the sketchy station.

The spindly legged venders who tended to occupy the landing terminal were just emerging from their holes and were creeping along the walls of the buildings overhead, on their way back to build new silk stalls for the day.

The saiyan prince gave the worm aliens from the planet Kress a wide berth. They creeped him out too much. He eyed them with a churning feeling in the pit of his stomach and listened as they chattered to one another, the fat, fleshy bodies dragging along the dusty Zula street as they began to drag out their wares to be displayed.

He walked past the Vaults, busy as ever, even at such an early hour. Zula's equivalent of a bank remained open at all times, whether Zula was under the gaze of its giant sun or its moons. If venders and shoppers weren't filling its halls, it was thugs and gamblers from Zula's underground arena, the killing field, depositing their winnings or taking out more credit to place bets.

Vegeta could see the Taxidermy stall still wasn't set up yet, so decided to enact part one of his plan.

He took a sharp turn off down a winding street, the end of which emptied into a dried up sewer bed. Despite the lingering smell of filth, this particular sewer bed was very busy, even if the rest of Zula was not. Vegeta weaved through the crowds, heading for the open grate that would lead him to his destination.

Two hulking green aliens stood either side of the grate, electrified whips in hands. These were the gatekeepers, the bouncers who oversaw the rabble that filed in to the killing fields to sate their blood lust. They eyed the small saiyan, who ignored their watchful eyes in turn, before turning their attention back to the rest of the patrons.

Vegeta was used to having Nappa at his back, but bit down on any anxiety as he plodded along with the rest of the plebs. He doubted anyone here could be a serious threat to him, Vegeta, prince of all saiyans. But it still wasn't the best idea to stir trouble. He just wanted to talk.

The mass of aliens finally broke apart as the sewage tunnel ended and opened into a multilevel dome.

On the level Vegeta had entered, aliens buzzed about food venders and makeshift bars. The three saiyans often came here to load up on cheap beer and food, things their rations from Frieza would often never stretch to. The smell of greasy, fried food hung in the air and Vegeta stepped over a splatter of vomit as he headed for the rickety cage elevator that would take him down to the lower levels.

He used his smaller stature to slink through the group of larger aliens all waiting for the elevator and managed to squeeze in when it finally juddered to a halt before them and the cage front lifted.

The ride down was always a great test in patience for the prince. The patrons also riding down were always smelly, loud, drunk, angry and always jostling each other, which made the already precarious cage wobble in its shaft. Usually, Vegeta had Nappa to stand behind him and hold back most of the unwashed. But this time he had to grit his teeth and force himself to remain calm as the elevator descended and the sound of someone near the back releasing gas echoed around them.

He more or less tumbled out when it came to the bottom level and scrambled to get out of the way when the other aliens stumbled out, laughing and yelling and coughing at the smell that had drifted through the crowd. He could taste it in the back of his throat himself and he wretched before composing himself.

Fucking peasants...

He made a mental note to bathe and scrub himself thoroughly when he got back to Jel's brothel and began to stalk his way through the dirty crowds. The bottom level was the killing floor, the main battling space for the area. A huge cage stood in the centre of the floor, lit from all sides by harsh spot lights. Vegeta had seen many a match in that cage but it wasn't something that particularly interested him. His interest lay in doing the actual fighting and not being a simple observer. The floor was brown and crusty with the blood of thousands of fights. It smelled too. He'd heard that it was occasionally hosed down but he thought that was probably a myth.

There wouldn't be a fight for another few hours. Not everyone was so eager to die that early, it seemed. But the bottom level of the killing fields was still lively. This lowest, dankest level was perfect for the shadiest of business deals. Vegeta knew the criminals that resided down there were not simple drug dealers or contraband sellers. Those nefarious types would operate freely in the black markets above with no fear of the law.

Down in the pits of the killing fields, that was where one went to sell your soul, or so they said.

Vegeta followed an offshoot tunnel with very little traffic milling about inside. He knew why. It was dangerous for those who were not prepared to venture that far. But the prince of all saiyans had a goal in mind and it was important he try and rectify Raditz's mistakes.

The older saiyan had told him and Nappa about the first run in with the slavers. How he'd attacked them in the streets when he'd used the girl to lure them out.

Fool...

Vegeta was genuinely convinced now that Raditz had lost his fucking mind. Arrah had made him lose his fucking mind. And Nappa was following suit. He didn't know whether to laugh or scream. Those two buffoons were getting their tales all twisted up over the girl. Raditz had been soft anyway, but years of living under Frieza had supposedly squashed all that weakness out of him. Vegeta was disappointed at just how quickly he'd fallen back into that sloppy mindset.

Nappa, Vegeta had thought better of. The man who'd watched over him his entire life was as hard as they came and usually chose a more violent approach when it came to feelings. When their home had been destroyed, it had been Nappa who had schooled him in the art of blocking it all out. Blacking it all out. To show the pain of loss was weakness, or so the tiny child had been told. Vegeta had always believed him and it had saved him many times over when Frieza had goaded him.

But Vegeta wasn't ignorant. Just as he was known to Nappa, Nappa was known to him. He knew the price Nappa paid in order to keep the oath he'd taken to King Vegeta. He might have drilled it into the child Vegeta that feelings were to be crushed down and replaced only by the most base of needs, but Vegeta suspected, especially with the way he'd changed toward Arrah, that maybe Nappa was no longer practising what he'd preached.

If that was the case, Vegeta was going to be very angry. How dare he insist Vegeta grow up cold and unapproachable. How dare he encourage Vegeta's most savage of natures and push him to be nothing but a cunning killing machine, when he himself would allow his heart to melt and allow the saiyan girl they'd found to worm her way in so freely.

Vegeta wanted that too.

He'd tried. Gods, he was still trying. Her distress had caused him distress. Her safety was his interest, hence his detour to those smelly former sewers. But the prince struggled with truly connecting with Arrah and he knew that maybe she wasn't fully connecting to him the way she'd done with Nappa and Raditz. Dammit! what would it take?! Vegeta was intelligent, proud, strong, ambitious, but was still lacking somewhere. It was so frustrating!

He was sticking his neck out further and further to try and ensure Arrah's life but he was beginning to wonder if it was even getting him anywhere.

The tunnel sloped downward toward another metal grate. Two hooded figures stood before it, dressed in the same fashion as the slavers that had taken Arrah. He was the only one in the tunnel that far, except them.

Inhaling deeply, the prince swore that if this didn't get him some sort of equal footing with the girl, it would be over.

"You lost, friend?" One of the slavers hissed from under his hood. A lizard alien like the others, he and his comrade glared at Vegeta with narrowed, glowing orange eyes.

"I'm here to see your boss, actually." Vegeta drawled, standing before the lizards as casually as he could manage, his face passive. Both lizards stood quietly for a second before starting to laugh. Vegeta remained relaxed, even as his tail fluffed with anger and his skin prickled with a sudden rush of raging Ki.

"I suppose you have an appointment, friend?" One of the slavers chuckled. "Considering it's suicidal to stroll in from the fields and want to talk to Chukka."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to Chukka about his recent run in with some saiyans." Vegeta ignored his instincts and allowed his tail to unwrap itself to swish out before the slavers.

Their pointy, crocodilian grins disappeared instantly and Vegeta leaned his weight to shift onto his back foot just in time to bring his other leg up and kick the first slaver to lunge in his sharp toothed mouth. His snout gave under Vegeta's boot and the prince made sure to push forward hard enough to send that slaver backward into the grate before he swung his leg round to deliver a spinning kick to the head of the second attacking slaver.

When that lizard crumpled to the ground and both lay unconscious, Vegeta stepped over them and opened the grate.

-oOo-

The first thing that alerted Chukka to possible danger in his midst, was the sound of yelling coming from down the tunnels.

The purple and white frilled lizard hushed his associates at the round table, bringing utter silence down on the room. His clawed hand hovered in the air, his only working yellow eye darting about the entrance to the meeting hall. The other leaders of the esteemed slavers guild all waited, also eyeing the blackened chasm that was the only way in and out of the round room.

His hearing wasn't the best but the lizard alien could feel the agitated vibrations of fighting getting nearer and nearer. His tongue darted out to taste the rancid tunnel air and found it tainted with new blood, charred scales and the metallic tang taste of Ki.

Anger and panic rose in his chest and the frills around his neck and head rose as he pushed his chair back to grab his blaster.

But he wasn't fast enough. There was a whoosh and a bang and the table he'd been sat at exploded, shards of wood and glass flying everywhere. His associates were screaming and Chukka clawed his way from the wreckage to push himself up against a nearby wall, grabbing his blaster on the way.

His only working eye scanned the dust clouds thrown up by the Ki blasts that shook the chamber around him. His associates screamed as they were killed, flashes of energy causing the air to fizz and crackle.

Chukka's hands shook as he waited. Every scream, every yell, was cut off one by one until silence took hold of the room. He held his breath, the panic tightening his chest as he waited for his inevitable death.

And then he saw him. The assailant's figure appeared in the clouds of smoke and dust and the lizard ringleader felt the anger return, broiling up into sheer rage.

He let out a roar that reverberated throughout the room and his hand squeezed down on his blaster, firing lasers frantically in the general direction of the figure in the clouds. The figure continued to move closer and Chukka became more desperate. He was going to die. He knew it.

The roar continued to echo, even after the source of the sound had been abruptly cut off.

Chukka stared dumbfounded at the flame haired, black eyed humanoid crouching before him, totally unscathed. His gaze left the man and moved down toward his blaster to find the weapon crushed in his hands and the barrel bent backward to face him.

"Well, this is no way to treat your guests." Vegeta drawled, his face indignant. "Especially when I came all this way to parlay."

The saiyan prince straightened and glanced about the room in its state of disarray.

"What do you want?" Chukka hissed, his voice low and scratchy and full of astonishment as he looked up at the saiyan. Vegeta spotted a single, mostly undamaged chair and moved to right it before dragging it back over to Chukka.

"As I said. I came to talk." He sat down so gracefully, his arms and legs crossing. "So let us talk."

Hey guys! I took some time off to get over a few things and try and sort other things out. I started to upload this to Archive of our own but honestly I wasn't happy with it and I thought maybe it was best finish up on here before moving it. THEN I came back to do a quick read through and found that half of my edited chapters had turned to gibberish. Literal gibberish. Probably explains the downturn in activity on this story and I'm a little angry its taken me so long to correct it.

Anywho, I'll be back to fire out a few chapters a week hopefully and also I've got four chapters of my homage story to Nappa on the go. I don't know when all that will go up.

so, yea. Go at it and enjoy.

GP