CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: THE PRINCE, HIGH AND MIGHTY

Zarbon was somewhat puzzled to find his ship partly dismantled, with several lab techs working on it.

He walked up to the most official-looking of them, yet another of the green muppet-like doctors and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Um... hello?"

The doctor spun around and bowed somewhat.

"I am very sorry for the delay, Zarbon-sama, but we were assigned to upgrade your ship!"

/Zarbon-sama? Man, this is getting weird./

He watched them dismantle some more of the saucerer ship.

"And what exactly were you supposed to do with it?"

"Fix its engine, and upgrade it, My lord!"

"please don't call me that."

The doctor looked at him with a cockeyed expression. "I'm working for you right now, sir. I will pay you the proper respects." The tech turned back and shouted a few more orders.

"Who gave you the work order?"

The doctor turned around again. "Why, the great King Cold-Sama, of course!"

"Then why are you paying me extra respect?"

The tech's mouth moved a few times, then he shrugged his shoulders and went back to work. Zarbon just sat down and waited for them to finish their work. Hopefully they'd be done before they started genuflecting toward Zarbon-Sama the Great and Mighty.

He was about to doze off when Prince Vegeta found him.

***

Zarbon's eyes were beginning to close when he felt the gloved hand touch his shoulder. He started and turned around, looking directly into the grinning face of the prince of the Saiya-jin. He had the look of a man in desperate need of raw deerflesh to eat.

"Hello, there..." Vegeta said, still grinning. He squeezed his hand on Zarbon's shoulder in an effort to intimidate him. Zarbon tensed up and barely felt it.

"Is there something you want, my prince?" he asked in a tone that suggested that "my prince" was not currently bent over him, grinning like a maniac.

"I've got you now, piece of bastardized TRASH!" Vegeta responded, dropping the princely demeanour. Zarbon rolled his eyes.

"Why do you have to stoop to such low insults, Vegeta? It doesn't help anything."

"SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!!! I MEAN BUSINESS!" the prince shouted as loudly as he could. Several techs glanced over their way, saw what was hapening, and promptly began working on the other side of the ship.

"What do you want, Vegeta? I know that somewhere behind your spoiled brat exterior, there's a real man trrying to get out. Now, please just sit down and act a little more calmly.""

Vegeta gave Zarbon such a puzzled look that Zarbon decided not to pursue the idea any further.

"Well? Spill it? I'm supposed to be leaving this planet as soon as those techs over there are finished with their work, and I'm not going to wait for you to finish speaking."

Vegeta clenched his teeth and steamed for a minute at this insult. How DARE he treat the PRINCE of the SAIYA-JIN in this way? How DARE he?

Zangya arrived as Vegeta opened his mouth to curse out Zarbon.

"Hey, Zarbon, sorry I'm late, I was- what the Hell?"

She looked around at all the techs, and at Vegeta looking like a wild animal ready to pounce, and quietly sat down on one of the nearby benches.

"See?" Zarbon said, smirking, "Now there's a lady in the room. Now you have to be more polite."

"I DON'T GIVE A FUCKING DAMN IN HELL ABOUT THE LADY!!!" Vegeta shouted, validating his claims with a string of obscenities. Zarbon just listened.

"Look, I WANT you to TAKE me with you, so I can LEAVE this HELLHOLE of a LIFE!"

Now Zarbon was genuinely confused. "What?" he asked.

"You heard me," the prince growled.

"What do you mean, "Hellhole of a life?"

Vegeta breathed in very deeply,a nd spoke with a surprising calmness.

"I hate my life," he began, "ALl of my potential has been wasted- potential for fighting, and potential for ruling. If I stay with my father much longer, I won't be fit to be the King of the Saiya-jin. I want to use you as an excuse to leave the palace and grow up somewhere."

Zarbon couldn't believe what he had just heard. Prince Vegeta had stated his point in a completely sensible, mature way. He had even eased his grip on Zarbon's shoulder. Zarbon brushed Vegeta's hand off and looked him directly in the eyes.

"Your father would kill me if I agreed, and you know that. Why don't you wait a while first, and then I might be able to get something worked out for you. If you start to revert at any time, though, before or after, I will cancel all plans. I can't have a stubborn, cocky, immature maniac like you around someone like Zangya."

Vegeta smiled in his familiar half-grin. "What? You afraid that I'll give her the time of her life?"

"You mean the time of her deeath, my friend."

Vegeta spit into the ground and started walking away.

"When you come back, i want an answer!" he said before turning the corner.

Zarbon relaxed in his seat and waited for the working crew to finally finish on his ship.