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Three months later… “And how goes the wooing of Zarbon?” Jaden asked Chestra with her mouth full. Jaden did not have the best table manners, but hers could have been as bad as Dodoria’s or Balair’s, so Chestra paid them no mind. She and Jaden were sitting in the Recreation Lounge, with Chestra eating a small banana fruitcake and ham and cheese sandwich, and Jaden eating her fifth box of chocolate and cherry ice cream that they had bought from the snack bar. Chestra, thankful to be on Zarbon’s account, was about to reply when suddenly they both heard a musical instrument similar to a trumpet echo throughout the Lounge. “Attention, everyone, please!” Guido announced loudly, as his chubby, toad-like body came tumbling into the doorway of the Recreation Lounge. “I would like to present the greatest champion and lover of all times: Captain Ginyu!” The other members of the Ginyu Force followed behind him. Jaden spat out her ice cream. “What the hell?” “What is Ginyu up to now?” Chestra wanted to know. Ever since she and the others had returned from their successful mission on planet Nassau, Ginyu had been trying to woo her, with everything from midnight serenades at her and Diamonique’s doorstep (which caused him to be written up by Zarbon, not only because he was serenading the woman that Zarbon wanted, but because Ginyu was a tone-deaf singer), to sending her corny, childish love poems with pathetic lines such as, “I want to paint you red, douse you with scent, and call you my rose!” As for Balair, he had made no more outward attempts to win Chestra over, but Jaden warned Chestra that didn’t mean that Balair had given up on her. Jaden told her that either Balair had moved on to other conquests, or he was planning a new way to seduce her, or worst of all, he was planning his revenge on her. Chestra kept an eye out for Balair; she was not worried about Ginyu, for she knew that the body-changing captain was harmless enough-at least to her, but Balair was a true threat. At that moment, the aforementioned Captain Ginyu came pirouetting into the Recreation Lounge, twirling on one toe and grinning. He was an excellent dancer and choreographer, if a terrible poet. And now he decided to use one of his notorious love poems on Chestra once more: “Chestra, little tweet, you are so sweet! You literally swept me off of my feet! Your hair is like grass and fire! You stir up my heart with desire! You’re a girl of real class With nice boobs and a cute little as-I mean behind-“ “Captain, that doesn’t rhyme,” Baata protested. “Quiet, Baata, she might not like it, if I cussed. Anyway, back to my love poem. Chestra, you are so zesty/ why if I took the ‘R’ and the ‘A’ off your name and put a ‘Y’ on the end, I could call you Chesty-“ “Ginyu, have you been sniffing Lord Frieza’s whiteout again?” Jaden interrupted. “You know that Dr. Katsen warned you about that the last time that you passed out from it. ” Ginyu looked at Jaden and blushed guiltily. Jeice leaned over and whispered to Jaden, “Don’t worry, he didn’t sniff it until after he wrote that poem.” “Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?” Jaden asked sarcastically. Ginyu grunted, “May I continue please?” Everyone sighed. Chestra shrugged. “May as well,” she told him wearily. She’d be glad when Ginyu and his pals went off to planet Ruu in a week to clear it; maybe she’d get a little peace. Ginyu added: “And to conclude, my vessel of lovely attitude, As much as I hate to be rude, I wish that I could be with you night and day, But alas, good Lord Frieza must have his way. He is sending me far to planet Ruu, But I’ll still be dreaming of you. I’ll still want you all the time, my sweet dab of cream It will be your sweet boobs and butt, which will make me dream. So farewell for now, my sugar-sweet flower, And dream of me, a man with real power.” And with a satisfied grin and an elaborate spread-eagle pose, Ginyu finally finished his poem, much to everyone’s eternal relief. “So,” he said to Chestra, looking at her. “What do you think of that poem?” Chestra flushed uncomfortably. “It was…original…in fact, I have never heard anything like it. No one writes poetry like you, Captain,” she hedged. She sighed with relief when she saw Ginyu’s grinning face; she had managed to tell the truth and spare his feelings at the same time. “It sucked,” snapped a rough baritone voice from the doorway. Everyone turned around to see Balair standing in the doorway. “Chestra liked it,” Ginyu told his archrival for Chestra’s affections spitefully. He then flashed Balair a happy pout. Balair grinned slyly. “So Miss Chestra likes poetry, eh? Well, I bet that the poem that I’m about to recite to her far outdoes yours.” The others heavily moaned, for Balair’s lyrics were usually twice as bad as Ginyu’s. Suddenly, everyone had an excuse as to why they had to leave. “Umm…I need to go potty now,” Reccoom said quickly. “And I have two dates scheduled for this evening, in fact one of them I’m supposed to meet at this very moment. See you all later!” Jeice jumped to his feet. “It’s time for my third lunch,” Guido choked out. “I’d love to hear it, Bali, but I need to work out a new pose that I thought up for my men,” Ginyu stammered. “And I promised him that I would help,” Baata added swiftly. “Love to stay, Bali, but I need to go get hit by a meteor shower,” Jaden quipped. “And I need to go prevent her from doing so,” Chestra added nervously. Balair grinned evilly. “Nice try, everyone. No one leaves until I get my poem recited. Ginyu got to say his, so I get to say mine. It’s only fair.” “What would be fair is for us not to have heard Ginyu’s either, and one poem is more than enough to suffer through,” Jaden told him. “I have to go potty,” Reccoom moaned again. “I’m hungry, Bali, can’t this wait?” Guido wanted to know. Balair decided to start now before anyone tried to flee or come up with another nickel-butt excuse. He blurted out: “Chestra, my woman, you make me drool! Over my body, I’ll let you have complete rule! I want to kiss your boobs and stroke your butt, And you have to admit that I have gut-“ “Oh, you have gut, alright,” Jaden interrupted, “Been having a few two many Crystal Blues and chili fry plates lately, haven’t you, Bali?” Balair growled at her, “Jaden, you better not be implying that I’m getting fat!” “Well, you did have to get your uniform and armor resized to a larger fit, last week,” Jaden pointed out with a knowing smirk. Balair debated between continuing with his poem and killing Jaden on the spot. Finally his desire for Chestra overrode his urge to obliterate his Rybanese archenemy with a ki blast, so he continued, deciding to skip to the last verse: “And if you agree to be my woman, And please me in bed tonight, You’ll find it to your eternal salvation, That I go easy on you during your Mid-Evaluation.” Chestra’s sea-green eyes widened, and she gasped aloud, “You-you, Commander Balair, are giving me my Mid-Evaluation?” “Wait a minute!” Jaden shouted. “I was the one assigned to give her the Mid-Evaluation, not you!” “Well, that was true,” Balair purred. “But I convinced Lord Frieza that you were getting so chummy with our little Chestra here, that you might not be able to be impartial and objective with her. So he assigned it to me. Of course, Zarbon can’t do it ‘cause he’s the one, along with Dodoria, who will be giving the Final, and Ginyu couldn’t give a donut a warrior examination, let alone a recruit, so it’s up to yours truly.” “You bastard!” Jaden roared. Chestra hissed, “That’s alright, Balair, I will still pass.” Balair slurred, with a wicked grin, “Not if I go all out with you, you won’t. Keep that in mind, Chestra, love. I’m really not a bad lover; you’ll like what I have in store for you after the Mid-Evaluation. See you in five hours, sweetness; I’m looking forward to this.” Balair strutted out of the Lounge like a proud Earth rooster. Chestra tossed her red and green head haughtily. “I defeated him once; I can defeat him again.” Jaden sighed wearily, “Chestra, I have to be honest with you, kid. You did beat Balair into the ground the last time, but that was because you caught him off guard; he didn’t know at the time about your power of telekinesis. Now he’s more aware of your powers, so he’ll be on his best guard, and I know that you know that Sistrai warriors can vaporize and liquefy themselves. Balair won’t show mercy on you.” “That’s alright,” Chestra told her as bravely as possible. “I won’t show mercy on him either.” A recruit, voluntary or involuntary, has three to four evaluations. The first is a Recruit Evaluation, in which a recruit considered a potential for the Elite is trained by his or her trainer, almost always a Top Elite officer. Any Lower or Mid Elite officer available at the time trains recruits considered potentials for only low-level positions. If a recruit passes his or her Recruit Evaluation, he or she trains until it is time for Mid-Evaluation. If a recruit fails Recruit Evaluation, there are two options for him or her: to retake the examination, if it is permitted, or be sentenced to death, if he or she did too badly. During a Recruit Evaluation, the only things that a recruit must do to pass, is to fight well and stay alive for twenty minutes with his or her trainer, plus take both a written and an oral examination beforehand. He or she didn’t have to win, nor was he or she expected to. The Mid-Evaluation was not much harder than a Recruit Evaluation, except that the recruit would fight another Top Elite officer other than the one that trained him or her. The time would go up to thirty minutes, and if the recruit lasted for the thirty minutes without being killed by the Top Elite officer training him or her, he or she would pass Mid Evaluation, provided that the oral and written tests were passable. If a recruit passed all fighting examinations, but failed the oral or written exams, he or she would automatically get another chance. But if a recruit failed the fighting part and passed only the oral and written exams, it would be up to the trainer and Frieza to determine if the recruit deserved another chance. During Final Evaluation, Dodoria and Zarbon, or any other two Top Elite officers would fight the recruit, each for thirty minutes separately, and then during another thirty minutes, they both would take on the recruit. (Frieza had changed the rules shortly after Chestra had arrived, extending the Final Evaluation fighting test from sixty minutes to ninety minutes.) If a recruit failed Final Evaluation, he or she would automatically be sentenced to death unless four Top Elite Officers or Frieza himself decided that the recruit would get another chance. This last option happened very rarely, because it was nearly impossible for four Top Elite Officers to agree on anything quickly, and Frieza was not known for giving second chances often. Now Chestra was sitting at a worn, metal desk, as the examiner, an android, a highly evolved robot named Calculus, recited questions at her. Calculus was six-feet tall, with a gold head, steel torso and copper limbs, and he held all and any information about Frieza and his forces’ doings in his computer brain. Chestra was relieved that it was Calculus giving the test, and not Balair. The questions ranged from basic knowledge about things such as math and Standard language to “ethics” questions such as: “Would you be willing to kill you best friend, if Lord Frieza asked you to?” Chestra wanted to say no, but Jaden had told her in advance to give any answers that she knew that Frieza would want to hear, so she answered, “Yes.” “If Frieza asked you to kill your parents, would you do so?” “Yes,” Chestra answered automatically. She didn’t like these so-called ethics questions, but she knew that she had to give the test givers what they wanted to hear. “If Frieza asked you to kill your mate, would you do so?” Chestra was extremely hesitant, and after thirty seconds, Calculus asked again, “If Frieza asked you to kill your mate, would you do so?” Chestra took a deep breath and said wearily, “Yes.” “Very good, Chestra, Voluntary Recruit 117899765. Now for your test in the Standard language. It is Lord Frieza’s orders that everyone speak Standard and Standard only. Could you be happy never speaking your native language again?” “Yes.” Chestra knew bits and pieces of several other languages, but Standard was the one that she was most familiar with. It was not a hard requirement for her. Calculus continued asking her questions about proper grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, and Chestra recited the answers to him, as if she were a robot herself. Finally, after both oral and written examinations, Calculus told her brightly, “Congratulations, Chestra, Voluntary Recruit 117899765, you passed your oral and written examinations. Now it is time for your Warrior Examination, the final test of Mid Evaluation. Good luck.” Chestra breathed a sigh of relief, and she mentally prepared herself for her fight with Balair. The Evaluation room held a stone ring, similar to the ones used in the Tenkaichi Budoukai on planet Earth. Chestra was doing warm-up exercises on the edge of the ring, when a cloud of red dust floated above the ring. She knew immediately that this was Balair in his vaporized form. The cloud of Balair landed gracefully in front of her, and it transformed into the solid form of the merciless Sistrai warrior. Balair drew himself up to his full height of eight feet, and he stared down at Chestra triumphantly. He winked at her and whispered to her thickly, “You know I can go easy on you, if you agree to be my woman. Final offer before we begin.” “Refused,” Chestra told him evenly. “I will have to take my chances with you.” Balair snorted. “Have it your way then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Frieza, Zarbon, Dodoria, Jaden, and the entire Ginyu Force were watching them at this moment, along with Hickey, one of Frieza’s assistants and Evaluation judges. Hickey resembled a tiny two feet, five inches pale blue mouse with gigantic square yellow ears each three times larger than his head, but he had a voice that could be heard from halfway across a small planet, no matter how softly he spoke. Hickey had no physical strength, except for what was in his voice, so Frieza mainly used him as an emcee at the rare special events and parties that Frieza would throw for his soldiers, as well as an Evaluation judge and tournament referee. “Welcome to your Mid-Evaluation, VR Chestra!” Hickey boomed, even though he was actually speaking softly, that is compared to any other member of his race. “I will review the rules with you for passing the final stage of your Mid-Evaluation. Rule Number One is that if you fall out of the ring three times, you fail, or if you fall to the ground and cannot get up after before I count to ten, you fail. And of course, if you die, which we all hope that you won’t, but knowing Commander Balair’s style of fighting-“ Hickey stopped his sentence after Balair shot him a look that could kill Hickey’s entire race. “Umm…well, anyway, if you die, of course, you fail.” “Rule Number Two is that if you leave or escape before the thirty minutes are up, you fail. Rule Number Three is that you may use any natural fighting technique that you possess to pass your Mid-Evaluation, whether it is shape shifting, transforming, clawing, telepathy or whatever. Rule Number Four however strictly forbids any weapons of any kind to be used, unless they are a part of your body structure. Rule Number Five forbids anyone else helping you in any way, whether it be verbally or physically; verbally includes shouting out tips and advice. Rule Number Six forbids you to be drunk or on drugs during your Evaluation, but since you tested negative for both tests, VR Chestra, that shouldn’t be a problem.” “And finally, Rule Number Seven says other than these restrictions, it’s no holds barred. Unlike Recruit Evaluation, you are permitted to kill your opponent, if possible, and if you do, you will automatically be inducted into Lord Frieza’s forces as a full-fledged member, along with your opponent’s position as a Top Elite officer. So in other words, VR, if you kill Commander Balair, and you pass everything else, you automatically gain his Top Elite position. Good luck, VR. Let the Evaluation begin!” Balair, in his solid form, flung himself at Chestra, who swiftly dodged him. Chestra somersaulted several times across the ring of the floor in order to escape her Sistrai opponent. She then decided that it would be wisest to pass this Evaluation as quickly as possible to prevent too serious injuries. She opened her tiny hands and shot black lasers into Balair’s head, in the same way as she had done with the dragon that she had fought on planet Egimari. She had finally come up with a name for this attack, which her foster father, King Muro, had taught her. He had had no name for it, but Chestra had thought of one before her Mid-Evaluation, and she had recently dubbed this attack as Tenfold Pain Blast. She then shot one of her green mouth blasts at Balair’s stomach, but Balair quickly vaporized the lower half of his body, and the laser flew through the cloud of red mist harmlessly. Chestra silently cursed, as Balair solidified himself again and raced towards her. She then tried to focus her mind on controlling Balair’s body, but Balair, remembering that blank, concentrated look of hers from the last time she had defeated him, was wise enough to vaporize himself entirely. Chestra focused her mind on restraining Balair, but her power of telekinesis only permitted her to move solid objects, not objects made out of air or vapor. She could do nothing to control the burgundy haze of her Sistrai opponent, and Balair was able to move about easily in his mist form. Before Chestra knew it, the maroon fog known as Balair enveloped her body and solidified itself back into its natural form. Balair was now holding her in his arms under her arms, and with a sharp shove, he threw her to the ground hard facedown. Chestra, anticipating the unavoidable fall, turned off all of her nerves before she crash-landed onto the stone floor of the ring. She swiftly leapt to her feet, and she shot more mouth lasers at Balair, who continued to vaporize himself every time that a laser would come at him. Finally, Chestra realized that she would have to fight him physically, and then she remembered something that Jaden had told her shortly before the Evaluation day. Chestra then remembered Jaden telling her one of the main reasons that she had defeated Balair, and it wasn’t just because she threw him off guard with her mind powers. Keeping Jaden’s secret advice in mind, Chestra flipped across the ring several times towards Balair, and she landed a swift kick in his gut while he was solid. It was a good kick, and Balair screamed loudly because of the increased pain, but it was not enough to damage him like she had hoped. Balair started to vaporize himself again, but before he could finish, Chestra’s fist crashed into his jaw. The Sistrai fighter cried out in pain again, but it did not cripple him. By all the Kais, why couldn’t she kick or hit him hard enough? Balair responded by slamming his fist into the side of Chestra’s head hard, causing her to fall over backwards before she could prevent herself from doing so. Balair then quickly dashed behind her and liquefied himself just as she was falling towards him. She slipped on the crimson ooze that was now Balair, and she fell to the floor, hitting her head harder than Balair had done. She suddenly felt very dizzy, and the room started spinning; her brains felt as if they had been stuffed in a pickle jar and shook up. Chestra felt weak suddenly, and she was not certain that she could rise up again. Two excruciatingly slow minutes passed. “One…” Hickey began. “Chestra, get up!” Jaden screamed. “Two…” Hickey continued. “Chestra, please get up!” Zarbon cried out in worry. “C’mon, Chestra!” Ginyu shrieked. “Three…” Balair had solidified himself again, and when he was back in his natural form, Jaden shouted at him, “You dirty cheat! That wasn’t fair!” “Yeah, Balair!” Jeice screamed. “You just did that ‘cause Chestra wouldn’t agree to sleep with you!” “Mean ol’ Balair!” Reccoom cried. Balair yelled back at them, “There are no rules that don’t say a Top Elite evaluator can’t liquefy himself, so stay out of it!” “Four…” Ginyu said to Frieza anxiously, “Sire…” “He’s right,” Frieza told him and the others coolly. “It is no holds barred for a Top Elite evaluator.” “But sire…” Jeice protested. “Five…” “Shut up!” Reccoom shouted at Hickey. “He has to follow the rules, Rec,” Jaden told him grimly, “whether we like it or not.” “Six…” Chestra lay on the ground, barely moving, and too dazed to think. “Seven…” “Chestra, don’t give up now!” Zarbon cried. “Chestra, get your scrawny butt off of the floor before I obliterate you myself!” Jaden cried, hoping that her harsh threat would stir her new friend back to her senses. She ignored the dirty looks of the others. “Eight…” Chestra knew that she was not as physically strong as the Top Elite officers, or even Diamonique, but it had not mattered too much, for her mind powers and her ki attacks had been more than enough to even up the difference. Her telekinetic abilities made her equally as strong as many of Frieza’s Elite fighters, but her brute strength paled in comparison to theirs. What could she do to even up the brute strength difference between her and Balair? King Muro of Ghetti had always told her that it took more than brute strength to win a fight, and he had also told her that using her head would be more useful to her in life than using her fists. When he had first told her that, a much younger Chestra had thought that he had meant her telekinetic powers, but she later realized that her foster father had meant her wits and wisdom. She now knew what she had to do. “Nine…” Chestra’s upper body began to escalate; little by little, she managed to pull herself up. “And she’s up! She’s still in!” Hickey bellowed. “Yay!!!!” everyone cried happily. “I knew that you had it in you, kid!” Jaden shouted. “And forget that last sentence that I said earlier; it was merely to incite you!” “That’s it, Chestra,” Zarbon encouraged. Ginyu hollered, “Kick Balair’s bloody red Sistrai as-“ “Mind your language, Ginyu, please,” Frieza admonished him. “Vaporize him permanently!” Jeice screamed. With the advice of both Jaden and King Muro in mind, Chestra slowly began to rise to her feet, and she levitated into the air ten feet away from Balair. She then twirled lightly, dancing towards him and flashed him her most seductive smile, as she landed right in front of him. “Balair,” she whispered in a velvety purr, “can you ever forgive me?” “For what?” Balair growled, with his hands on his hips. “For not realizing the prize that I would be getting in you. I shouldn’t have resisted you the first time that you tried to make your intentions clear towards me, but I was startled. It wasn’t until today that I realized what a studly, handsome, and very strong man that I would have. Is that offer of yours still open?” Balair smiled wickedly, for when it came to flattery from a beautiful woman, he was not too perceptive or nitpicky as long as it was positive. He slithered over to Chestra and said slyly, “Anytime, sweetness, anytime. I’ll let you land a few more punches on me, then in about ten minutes, your Evaluation should be over. I can’t wait to jump your bones, baby girl; you’re going to love what’s coming.” “And you’re going to love what I have in store for you,” Chestra cooed. “Now close your eyes, and I’ll give you something sweet to remember me by before we resume our match.” “Sure thing, sweetness,” Balair murmured, as he stupidly closed his eyes so hard, that he was squinting. “Is this something sweet a kiss perhaps?” “Oh, it’s definitely something that your mouth will remember alright,” Chestra sang happily, amused by Balair’s sudden pouting of his lips. Before her Sistrai suitor knew what hit him, Chestra landed two hard punches at once, one on his lips and another on his midsection. Before Balair could react, Chestra’s fist crashed into his ribs, and her foot landed on his toe. Balair screamed harshly, for Chestra’s attacks hurt ten times more than what they normally would have. He tried to grab her, but Chestra’s tiny foot came smashing down on his, and to her pleasure, she could hear and feel bones cracking. Balair snarled in both pain and fury, and then he tried to vaporize himself, but to his horror, he couldn’t. Chestra had broken his bones! “You slut! Now look what you’ve done!” Balair screamed. “I can’t vaporize!” “I know,” Chestra told him triumphantly. “I found out recently that if your bones are broken or cracked, you are unable to vaporize or liquefy yourself until the bones mend themselves again. Now it’s time to finish this match once and for all.” And with that, before Balair could stop her, Chestra concentrated her mind, and with her telekinetic powers, she gained control of Balair’s body. Balair rose into the air against his will, and he crashed into the ceiling. Chestra swung him around in the air with her mind power, as Balair slowly grew dizzy. She then used her mind to send him falling to the ring, where he collided with the rigid floor of the ring-right onto his head. But Chestra wasn’t done yet. Balair continued to struggle against her mind powers, but as before, he was helpless to prevent her, as she brought him into the air again. She threw him against the north wall several times with her mind, each time causing him to be harmed worse than before. Balair screamed in horror for the pain that came each time was still ten times more than what it would have normally been. For the grand finale, Chestra stood still, calmly, as she brought him into the air again with her telekinetic capabilities, and then she once again threw him to the floor of the ring hard, with Balair’s head directly hitting the tiles of the ring. Balair shrieked in pure terror, for he thought that Chestra truly meant to kill him this time. Luckily for him, he was literally hardheaded, so he was mercifully knocked unconscious the last time that he hit the floor. And then to Chestra’s eternal relief, a loud buzzer sounded from the distance, and Hickey shouted triumphantly, “You have passed the final stage of your Mid-Evaluation, VR Chestra! Congratulations! You have passed your Mid-Evaluation! You have also passed your oral and written tests, so you won! Well done!” Everyone clapped and whistled loudly, and Frieza smiled at Chestra, as he floated into the ring towards her and said quietly, “Well done, VR Chestra, very well done. I have never seen a trainee give it back to Commander Balair that well. You have proven yourself this day, my dear.” He took her small, delicate hand in his and shook it gently, but firmly. Chestra shook it back, knowing that it was not every day that Lord Frieza honored a recruit like this. She smiled back and whispered, “Thank you, Sire.” She then tried to slide her hand back out of her liege’s hand, but to her surprise, Frieza held onto it for much longer than he should have. Chestra felt his thumb caress the inside of her palm tenderly, as his eyes lowered into a sleepy gaze. He looked at her intently, as a slow, provocative smile spread across his porcelain face. For the first time in a while, her heart froze in fear, for she recognized that look on Frieza’s face, a look that she had seen many times on many men in her life. It was a look of lust, of desire. Chestra bit her lip to keep herself from shrieking, for the way Frieza was looking at her now made her cringe. Frieza’s seductive look reminded her unpleasantly of some of her previous masters, particularly the worst ones such as that Sistrai bastard general and Egron. Chestra’s ivory skin grew even whiter, if that was possible. She said hastily to Frieza: “Sire, would you please excuse me, for I am very tired, and I really need a shower. May I please go?” Frieza chuckled softly, but he didn’t release her hand right away. He pulled her to him and whispered, “What is wrong, my dear; you look terrified, as if I am going to eat you. I would never do that, my dear, except for a little nibble here and then.” Chestra abruptly yanked her hand out of his, forgetting about manners and propriety. She just wanted to flee, for she suddenly felt very, very ill. “I must go, sire, I really must, I am sorry!” And without looking back, she dashed out of the Evaluation room, with Jaden watching her worriedly. Zarbon had witnessed the entire scene between his liege and his potential love, and he was furious-at Frieza for disturbing Chestra so and at himself for not intervening. He had not heard the words exchanged between them, but he had a fairly good idea of what had happened; it was obvious that Frieza now wanted Chestra for himself-and Chestra didn’t like that idea at all. He clenched his fists while Frieza’s back was turned, and he was fuming. Frieza had made it clear before that his only interest in the young female recruit had been as a fighter, nothing more. Now Frieza had joined the ranks of Chestra’s admirers? What was he, Zarbon, going to do? He didn’t have a chance against Frieza, should Frieza decide to claim the girl for himself, but he couldn’t, no wouldn’t, allow that deadly tyrant to force Chestra to become his mistress. Chestra deserved much better than Frieza; Zarbon respected and honored his lord, but he knew that Frieza was not a good man, and he would not make Chestra happy. He had to prevent his liege from touching her, but how? He gulped; he would have to talk to Jaden, for he was certain that Jaden would be the only one who would be brave (and rash) enough to help him keep Chestra out of Frieza’s hands, and possibly Balair’s as well. Zarbon straightened himself up; he had so much on his hands now to keep the woman that he wanted safe. He knew that he could not have her himself until after she passed her Final Evaluation, but he would not allow any other man to have what was meant to be his. He was certain that Chestra would want him more than anyone else, and he was determined to make her his, Frieza or no Frieza, Balair or no Balair. Zarbon was secretly pleased that Chestra had taught the Sistrai warrior a brutal lesson twice. Maybe Balair would be deterred away from her permanently. If it were only that simple with Frieza. Oh, sweet Kami, he hoped that he could protect the feisty red-and-green haired recruit from his lord’s slimy clutches. |