Haha new chapter finally! Decided to start off the new year well and hopefully post quicker. I truly am sorry for the delays, this story is slightly on hiatus right now. Busy time in my life, lots of projects and shit like that = not much time to write. Sorry for the many delays ahead, college life is here... But anyways, I am typing this story as you read, little by little, already got the plot and stuff done. Thank you for being patient if you are, we've all had it happen. And now for your reading pleasure, chapter 12 of Why We Live:

Chapter 12: A Place for My Head

Vegeta returned to Frieza's home base a few days after the now nameless planet's massacre, smirking at his job well done. He couldn't believe he missed all of this those many years on Earth and wondered why his parents even took him into hiding. His grin faded though at the sight of the minions lingering in the halls in front of him. Even though he had a power of elite status, he was still seen as the newbie and a lesser being altogether. He was taunted constantly for his race (apparently Saiyans are not so popular even though they were extremely powerful, as a complete race), but he wasn't in the empire to make friends either. Vegeta straightened his posture and held his head high as he walked past the taunts sent in his direction, not even flinching as the aliens made comments on snippets of his past; nothing was personal in Frieza's command anymore.

Once entering the residence area of the base, he veered off to Frieza's main conference room. Upon returning from missions, all elites were required to make a report directly to Frieza. Only elites were graced with the privilege of challenging missions, but some stronger commoners were allowed on these missions as well, as tag-a-longs, to become trainees for the elite army.

The halls became a little less crowded as he moved closer to the grand room as only selective groups were allowed to be in 'his' presence. The current corridor reached up to an unimaginable height and expanded horizontally to accommodate for the wood carved door, giving anyone in the hall the feeling they were insignificant. For the first few weeks of his training, Vegeta was only in this room for punishment if Frieza called him there, and had slightly become one of the alien's favourite to train to the empire's ways. Vegeta repressed a shudder and tried to show no visible anxiety about meeting with the warlord. Even after a year, the recent memories still gave the prince the creeps.

The doors opened quickly for their size as Vegeta approached, yet there was no one on either side to do such a movement. On a hovering circular seat at the end of the room sat Frieza, his back to Vegeta's approaching form. The saiyan sauntered to the hovering seat and stopped at a small distance from the lizard. He bowed respectfully, but would not lower himself too much out of spite. Without turning from his luxurious window view of the dead planet, Frieza spat, "You're late. That mission was only to be a week, not 3."

Vegeta smirked as he raised his head. "You can't expect me to just annihilate everything and not have a little fun while I'm at it." His chuckle was cut short by a whip to the face, presumably by Frieza's speedy tail. Vegeta kept his face turned to the side and waited for Frieza's lecture that he knew was to come. It wasn't the first time the prince had decided on a little extended time for his recently achieved purges, or any assignment for that matter.

He flinched as a cold hand slid down the side of his face, trailing the thin line of blood by the blow and ended by lightly grabbing his jaw. Vegeta knew better by now than to pull away, but tensed in preparation for an attack if necessary. He swallowed hard as Frieza turned his head to face the lizard.

"Vegeta," Frieza started, "I'd hoped by now you would've learned how to conduct yourself in my empire, after everything I've taught you."

The saiyan paused a second, considering the consequences of anything to say, but rebelliously continued anyway. "Apparently not."

The hand on his jaw tightened to painful levels as Vegeta felt the bone begin to crack under the pressure, but the swift blow to his abdomen relieved that to a newer pain. Vegeta was down in an instant choking on his air and Frieza leapt from the circular chair. "Apparently, I was relying on you to learn too much too quickly; too much for your primate brain to handle," Frieza said as he picked up the young prince in a choke hold, "Maybe you need more time to learn."

Vegeta was thrown into the nearby wall, causing the section to crack and Vegeta to crumble to the floor. He jumped up to dodge the next attack, an energy beam that would have burned his torso. Vegeta growled as he pounced in to attack, not wanting to let Frieza beat him senseless once again. Frieza was quick though as Vegeta was thrown to the ground and held by the lizard's clawed foot. The saiyan coughed from the pressure on his now bruised ribs and struggled to get free.

The warlord crushed Vegeta's chest to halt his struggles. "Now, now," he criticized, "You know better than this." With a sinister grin Frieza contracted his foot and dug the claws into Vegeta's armour, piercing the material, skin and slightly the bone. Vegeta clamped his jaw shut to hold in a scream threatening to rip out of him. He knew the torture was to come the second he walked in the door, but would not let this control freak hear his pain.

Frieza leaned in and whispered to Vegeta's bloodied face, " Things would begin to look better for you if you did what you're told!" He leaned more weight on Vegeta to emphasize each word, who only stared up with hatred in his eyes. Frieza smirked and continued, "You would do so much better if you weren't so injured all the time." He cackled and began to twist his foot slowly.

Vegeta had enough. Through the blinding pain, he conjured a small ball in his left hand and slashed at Frieza's ankle. Frieza backed up, startled, but it was enough for Vegeta to roll out and crouch at a safe distance. Blood began to pool at his feet from his chest wound, but stopped as he lunged forward to land as many hits as he could on Frieza.

The first few flew by unblocked, but Vegeta's wrists were soon seized and twisted as he was brought down to Frieza's knee and onto his chest. "You fucking monkey!" Frieza screeched and ruthlessly attacked Vegeta until he could barely move, all in the matter of seconds.

As Frieza began a new sequence of bone crushing moves on Vegeta, the hall's doors creaked open to a tiny alien, about the size of a 10 year old child, scurrying to the pair. "Lord Frieza!" it squeaked and lowered to its knee within 10 feet of the lizard. Holding the saiyan by his throat, Frieza stared and questioned angrily, "What do you want?"

The greyish alien shivered as he kept his eyes trained on the ground. "There was a malfunction in the control room," it said in its high voice after a few seconds.

"Then fix it," Frieza commanded as he turned back to Vegeta and grinned. Vegeta swung at his captor as he inhaled deeply to try and breathe. Frieza growled as the little alien tried to get his attention once again. "What are you still doing here?" he snarled.

Vegeta's vision began to fade, and the warmth of his blood oozing everywhere started to turn cold. He willed himself to stay conscious, but knew his body couldn't take anymore. The grey blob in his peripheral vision was speaking, but the thumping in his ears drowned out any sound aside from murmurs. He barely saw Frieza sigh, then turn back to him as the blob ran away, scared out of his mind at the lord. His evil purple lips were moving and then formed a sneer at the prince. Vegeta had no time to decipher the unspoken syllables as he was tossed into the wall again. This time, he decided not to get up -if he was able to- but watched Frieza and his cronies waltz away, finally giving in to the urge to sleep.

-----

As Frieza's entourage raced to the control room to fix the 'problem', one of the maintenance subordinates pressed against the wall to avoid being trampled. The blonde hair sticking out of the sides of his hat, similar to a toque with a bill, blew to the side as the men pushed by, almost causing a wind burn on his face. He turned to continue his path but bumped into a very large, green wall. The boy fell to the floor from the force and was pulled up by his shirt collar and pushed against the wall yet again. "You, boy," Zarbon said to his new victim. "Go put the saiyan scum into the regen tanks, or it'll be your head."

He quickly released the blonde and fell into the current towards the control room, following Frieza's retreating form. Chester readjusted his clothing and continued his path to the main conference room. "Where do you think I was going," he muttered, "To mess with some other piece of technology?" He picked up his pace as the grand doors , now open, came into to view and glanced around for his friend.

Chester gasped as he found the unconscious Vegeta lying twisted on the ground. "Oh shit," he exclaimed and raced to the bloodied body on the side of the room. "What did you get yourself into.." He fidgeted because of the many lacerations the saiyan had over his body, not knowing where an unpainful place to hold him up was. Screw it, he's already out, Chester thought as he picked Vegeta up and placed him over his shoulder. A grunt of pain was heard from Vegeta as Chester began walking towards the medical ward, which was unfortunately quite a few minutes away. "Thankfully I grew a little stronger, you heavy thing," the blonde murmured to the lifeless man over his shoulder and continued his trek to find some help for Vegeta.

-----

Hours later, Chester awoke with a start at the beeping across the room. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and glanced at the glass window of the regen tank. The green liquid stirred inside the metal container as Vegeta began to move around and wake himself up. The blonde rose with a groan and turned the regeneration process off, letting the liquid drain and hoping Vegeta was still a little bit in pain. "I hope you can finally learn from this, you idiot," he said to himself as Vegeta groggily moved out of the tank, leaning against the control board to give him some room.

Vegeta stretched his sore muscles and winced at the slight strain in them. "Tank must be malfuntioning," he mumbled as searched for a change of clothes.

"It's not malfunctioning, I hope you're still sore," the blonde behind him stated. Vegeta whipped around at the new presence with a beam in his hand.

"What are you doing in here..." he questioned, still a little hazy from the forced sleep.

"Excuse me?!" Chester snarled, "I just saved your ass for one thing! I havent seen you in almost a year, and all you can say to me is 'what are you doing in here?' Are you seriously that out of it?!"

Vegeta disintegrated the ball and studied the man across the room. "Chester?" he asked quietly.

"Who else would be stupid enough to help you? Santa Claus?"

Vegeta sighed as he started to search for clothing again, his wet ones becoming itchy. "Well excuse me, I just woke up, so don't blame me for..." He paused his movement, then spun around to glare at Chester. "What the hell are you doing here? You should be back on Earth by now! I gave you so much time to leave! Or did you get captured too," he ended quietly, waiting for a reply.

"No, I wasn't captured," Chester responded and threw a clean uniform to his friend. Vegeta caught it one-handed and awaited for another explanation of his presence in Frieza's base, which Chester should know he'd want to ask. "Change and I'll explain, I know you're itching to," he joked and began to slowly pace, avoiding the glare Vegeta was throwing at him.

"Where to begin... Maybe where you decided to sacrifice yourself to save me (thank you for the thought by the way, it made me all warm inside that you cared)." Chester easily dodged a shoe thrown at his head and continued, "ANYways, after you left, I thought there was no way in hell that I'd leave you to die after you brought me into outer space. So, with the lovely map you gave me, which I almost lost in the snow, I had made my way back to the space pods to find you. It took a fuckin long time, I was pretty dehydrated but I made it."

Vegeta, who had made a comfy seat on the table on his side of the small room, shushed Chester and briskly walked to the closed door. He leaned his ear against the metal and listened intently. "What it is," Chester whispered.

For a few moments neither of them moved. Vegeta backed from the door to open it and walked out, motioning for Chester to follow him, which he did without a second thought. After watching the dark haired prince sneak around corners and look over his shoulder occasionally, Chester questioned, "Are we being followed?"

"No," Vegeta answered hurriedly, "We could be caught though. With your clothes.." which he glanced at quickly, "...I'm guessing you're a servant or something, which wouldn't be good for either of us to be conversing." Without another word for the rest of the trip, Chester followed Vegeta to what they hoped be a secure location, avoiding all guards and elite minions, and technicians from the advice of Chester.

Minutes and a few floors up later, Vegeta led the blonde into his room, which he debugged almost daily until Frieza's techies gave up on him, and from a bit of unknown persuasion and rebellion from Chester. Vegeta locked the doors and scanned the area, finally plopping down on the lumpy couch on the side of his room. Chester studied the room, "I thought you were an elite soldier."

"What's that supposed to mean," Vegeta questioned warily with a raised eyebrow.

Chester sat down beside him, but far enough to jump out of Vegeta lunge if he decided to attack Chester for any given reason. You never know.. "It's not supposed to mean anything, It's just, this is barely better than what I have."

The room was pretty dull. With Vegeta out so often, the grey walls and rugged furniture looked barely used, and had no personal touch to it. There was a single bed off to the side, a metal dresser for uniforms that were probably the exact same, as were everyone elses in the base, the maybe 3-man couch the duo was sitting on and a small coffee table that Vegeta decided to use as an ottoman. Beide them was a closed doorway, most likely to a small personal bathroom. But that was it.

Vegeta shrugged, "It's all I need. And just because I'm elite doesn't mean I get the best stuff around here; that's only people like Zarbon and of course Frieza." Vegeta turned to his old friend, "Continue. How did you get into Frieza's maintenance?"

Chester leaned back and dramaticaly began, with an eye roll from Vegeta, "Well, it all started after I found Frieza's home base. I knew you'd be brought there eventually, so I tried to fit in the best I could. I found a job with the techies, and I must say I think I'm getting very good at it."

The prince chuckled. He said, "The last time I saw you with technology, it turned out horrible." In his mind though, Vegeta couldn't remember that last time, or anything else from his past life. He knew main events, the murders he committed on Earth, but details were extremely fuzzy now, especially with everything that Frieza had filled his head with, everything he had been trying to deny.

A snicker from Chester brought Vegeta out of his thoughts for a moment. "Don't believe me?" he asked, to which Vegeta eyed him. "Who do you think re-encrypted his purge system so you wouldn't get beaten near death again?"

Vegeta's wide eyes made Chester's pride swell; he had finally proved that he wasn't useless to Vegeta's judgement. "I know, I'm awesome," Chester commented. Vegeta shook his head at Chester's ego, almost as big as his own actually

"Well, as you can see now, I'm fine," Vegeta stated as he leaned back on the couch, hoping to sleep a bit more to regain strength that Chester had unknowingly drained from him. "You can go home and live normally again."

"I'm not leaving, are you kidding? Look what they've turned you into Vegeta," Chester exclaimed. He jumped closer to the saiyan, startlinghim slightly. "I've even figured a few things out being at the bottom for a year. You can hear anything if people aren't paying attention to your existence. Like did you know-"

"I don't care what you've found out Ches, you're not meant to be here," Vegeta interrupted, "I haven't turned into anything either, other than what I was meant to be."

"A killer?!"

"I was born into THIS world, not meant to live a life on earth!"

"So you'd prefer to live in a world where you fear for your life, where you get beaten for crossing a small line in Frieza's head, and where you're an emotionless killer?" Chester sighed and moved back to his side of the couch. Vegeta moved to speak, but was cut off. "I'm not leaving you Veg, you need help here at least."

In an instant, the blonde moved from the couch to being held on the wall behind the sofa on a vice grip. He began coughing as Vegeta held him still. "I've been holding this off for a while, but I remember telling you if I saw you back here I'd kill you," he muttered darkly. "I can force you to leave too, you know. It won't be as comfortable though."

"Veg," Chester gasped, "I can't breathe."

"No shit," he growled.

"Look at you, you're choking the only person left that even gives a shit about you out here," Chester struggled out, "It's Frieza's doing, I know it is." Vegeta loosened his grip a little to give Chester some air to talk, if that's what he wanted to do. "Vegeta please, let me help you. You're not evil.."

Chester was dropped to the sofa as Vegeta suddenly let go and backed away. He inhaled deeply and clutched his throat to hold himself up. "That is insane strength," he rasped out after a few minutes. The blonde glanced up after he could breathe normally again to see Vegeta on his knees near the end of the bed. "Vegeta?" he asked, "Are you alright?"

"No," was his reply with downcast eyes. "Chester, I think I need your help."

Chester walked over to kneel beside Vegeta, and pulled him into a slight hug. He was thankful Vegeta pushed him off, but not too hard; he hadn't completely broke down at least. "You're almost back to normal," Chester laughed. "Now to get that shit out of your system."