AN: It's been a while! I'll have to clarify a few things:

First of all, I haven't stopped writing at all, I simply didn't want to write DBZ stories. Honestly, I haven't been an active fan (except for writing FFs) for a LONG time. And I lost pretty much any deeper interest, which also killed my motivation for writing. I needed something new and I'm currently active in another fandom.

Which brings me to my next point! For everyone reading on FF . Net couldn't see that I uploaded other stories since those are not allowed on FF . Net… I mean do what feels best for you but I highly recommend switching to AO3. I'm 'Nevaeh' there. All my stories are there as well and the site is SO much better than this one, sorry.

I love this story nonetheless. I wanted to write it for so long and I will NOT abandon it. Would I be happy about a few more readers? Yes. Can I promise quick updates? Not really, sorry. But I won´t abandon it! Btw, I decided to make it a Bra/Goten story overall. It won´t change my outlined plot, so if you wanted to see that... there you go.

Warnings for this chapter… no more talking about sexual abuse. There will also be no more sexual abuse for the rest of the story. It will be mentioned and maybe threatened, but nothing else will happen! By the way, since it's been quite a while since I last updated and the global pandemic had happened in the meantime, I noticed that Goten's situation is kinda similar to what is happening right now: He can't get out of that damn room. I've been sitting in Home Office for over two months! But at least I'm safe and alone, although I might've gone a little crazy haha.

Either way, thanks for reading and hope you enjoy this chapter!

It was 79 days on the ship. 22 after Goten had to realize that he couldn't find Bra with the help of the Saiyans. 22 days after Goten finally had to acknowledge that they hadn't deserved even the slight morsel of trust he did have in them. 22 days in which his mood changed from lethargy to rage faster than he could sometimes follow.

In this time… Anjana had lost a little interest in him. He'd been so compliant, he'd done everything she wished for, begged and graveled and been her obedient pet. And of course it bored her, that the little Saiyan didn't show any kind of spunk anymore. He hadn't done it completely on purpose, not at first, but then… it was a dangerous gamble, but he didn't have much to lose anymore. He hoped it meant he could work as something productive, he'd even be happy cleaning the toilets. Or he'd be the new pet whore of the rest of the crew. If it meant getting out of this damn room he was willing bite that sour apple though. How much worse could it get anyway?

When his predictions came true two days later he was a little bit proud anyway. He was still good at reading people. She was sitting at her desk, staring down at Goten, kneeling. He didn't mind. He was still away from her.

"Boy, you've behaved well. Would you like to have your own room?"

He tried not to look too eager, smiling softly while he bowed his head: "You're too generous. I'd miss you, but I'd like my own room."

She laughed, a dirty, disgusting laugh. "Stop lying, you little pest. You'll get one with the service workers. I decided you can get free access to the ship. Don't annoy someone. And when I call for you you come over immediately, understood?"

He nodded and thanked, thanked some deity that had to exist. He didn't even have to stay the evening, one of the blue people came and led him away, so far that it took a ride with some kind of elevator train and over 20 minutes. She obviously wasn't interested in him anymore and Goten could've done a victory dance. The room he was assigned was nothing spectacular, but it wasn't the worst. Medium sized, a bed, a tiny bathroom, some kind of TV, even a desk. His luggage, the few things he had taken with him was also there. His notebooks. Still intact. He wasn't sure if there was some kind of surveillance in his room so he decided not to scream and jump and laugh and cry and… and he simply sat down on the bed, tried to breathe calmly while he wondered what to do next.

He fell asleep. It was the best night he'd had in a long long time.

It took him three days to finally start with planning. He had been so exhausted and knowing that no one was coming for him, at least not immediately, had shut down every system in his body. On day four, he felt a little like a person again. And he started thinking. He had no reason to assume that Bra was dead. Someone from the palace sent her away on some kind of ship. He also had no reason to assume that someone wanted to hurt her and he trusted Bra's sense of self preservation enough that he could reasonably believe that it wasn't a punishment. Maybe she was supposed to be off the planet since she was a danger to the ruling monarchy. She was kind of related to them, kind of helped with killing Freeza and was definitely looked down upon since she wasn't full-blooded. So that meant he had to get off this ship, also assuming that Anjana wouldn't care enough to hunt him down (which was also reasonable. He didn't know anything. He didn't care.) Then he had to find the Saiyan ship Bra was on. For that he needed a job. For that he needed to know if there was a war going on. He had some ideas. And it was… Freedom was something achievable again. And it helped keeping his thoughts occupied.

And who knew? If he actually managed to get off the ship, he might even thank Anjana. She made sure he wouldn't trust anyone ever again in this godforsaken galaxy.

The ship was huge. Enormous. It wasn't as awful as the saiyan ones though, which wasn't hard he supposed. There were directions in every hallway, there were overviews next to the elevator trains, the script was easy to read and the few words he needed to know not hard to remember. And what was even better… no one knew who he was. He was dressed as some service staff, and as a general rule in all developed societies, service workers were ignored. They didn't know if he cleaned the floors, made the food or did the laundry. Which came more in handy than he had ever imagined.

He located the hangar bay after a few days, when his tiny language lessons were successful enough to read the signs. The TV in his room had been a console, after all, and held all the knowledge he so desperately needed.

So that was done. He still needed to know how to access the ships, when, in what way that they wouldn't shoot him out of the sky immediately and how to pilot them. But that… was handed to him on a silver platter. Another general rule in developed societies was to treat those who served you like dirt. That's why it was always a good start to be nice to everyone, indiscriminately.

Goten couldn't tell what species the other occupants of his floor were. Most of them looked more or less human. None of the blue people who seemed to only work in higher ranking jobs. A lot of the small scaly creatures who had brought food and cleaned while he had still been imprisoned in Anjana's room. He had talked to some of the humanoids, but they hadn't been very forthcoming. Answered when asked, didn't want to chat. It was when he bumped into one of the small creatures and apologized and the creature answered with: "It's okay, I'm fine." that he paused and… re-evaluated.

Goten wondered if he was actually on to something or if he was simply being delusional, while he was sitting in a broom closet next to a huge machine for cleaning the floors, waiting for someone to come in. He assumed that there wouldn't be surveillance in those, and if there was… well. If he couldn't get off the ship he'd rather die. There was not much to lose.

After what felt like hours he heard the soft noise of the door moving and the tiny steps of one of the scaled workers. When it spotted him it opened their eyes wide and looked ready to bolt, but Goten was quicker and held their arm.

"Sorry, don't run away. Can I… talk to you?"

They looked around, frightened and Goten let go of their arm. He wouldn't want that as well. He knew that intimately. "I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you. I'm Goten."

They still didn't say anything, but they also didn't run away. That was a first step.

"Do you work here voluntarily? Or are you slaves?"

Now they looked up, pure panic on their face before they said: "Don't speak like that!" and ran away. Well. That had been quite enlightening.

Later that evening Goten was eating his dinner while writing a few notes down when the door suddenly opened and another scaly worker looked at him. It wasn't the same as the one in the supply closet, they smelled different.

"Goten?"

"Yes. That's me." He nodded and smiled and they came a little closer, held out their hand. Goten eyed it for a moment before they waved it urgently and he grabbed it. Felt a piece of paper in his hand.

"I'm Sursu. Welcome to the quarters." Sursu bowed weirdly and scuffled out again. Goten looked at the door for a long time after that.

It took some time for him to find the room that had been scribbled on the piece of paper. He'd anticipated it and was more than half an hour early. It was a small, empty room located in the lower middle of the ship. Quite a few people were running around, but the room was entered through another supply closet and no one cared if a service worker entered that.

Right on time the door opened and after a long second of waiting who it was, two different scaled workers entered. One looked a little older, as far as Goten could tell.

"Goten?"

"Yes. That's me." He bowed and they bowed back. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"You wanted to talk to us first, as we heard." The older one gestured to the floor and they sat down. "You ask dangerous questions."

Goten huffed. "Why? I'm a slave on this ship. Wondering if there are more is curiosity, nothing more."

The other one stroked their scaly chin thoughtfully. "Hm. They don't like the word slaves. They think it's an honor working on their ships and therefore we can't be slaves. We should be grateful they are keeping us safe. It is a small price to pay that we aren't allowed to leave."

"Sounds familiar…"

"Though…" They moved their head to the side, studying Goten with yellow tinted eyes. "You belong to Nennaia. You are a Saiyan. The Saiyans like working here. You don't. What makes you different?"

Goten rubbed his knee, carefully thinking of his words. He didn't want to sound too… aggressive. "I'm not a proper Saiyan. They don't want me there. And I didn't want to belong to Anjana. I thought she would let me catch a ride and not… well." He looked around, a bitter smile on his face. "They can all rot in hell for all I care."

The other one stared at him wide eyed and let out a high pitched whine. Looks like he struck a nerve.

"I understand. Blessed are the ones who come from peaceful worlds."

Goten snorted. Peaceful. The peacefulness of Earth had come at a high cost, but it didn't matter. Not right now. "I want to get away from here."

"Are you sure though, Goten? This galaxy is a hostile place."

"My friend is out there. I need to find her. We only have each other. I can't… I need to know she's safe."

They were quiet for a long time, only their tails rubbing over the floor, making a soft, scratching sound, until the older spoke again: "That is very noble. If we help you… will you help us?"

"YES!" Goten immediately said, almost shouted. He would've helped the devil if he would get him away from this place, and these people were much more deserving.

"Saiyans are strong fighters. Are you… a fighter?"

Oh this was going in a brilliant direction. "As long as none of them has enough time to paralyze me then no one on this ship is a match."

Another thoughtful nod. "We will get back to you, Goten."

His heart was hammering in his chest. This was sounding good. Too good. "Don't you want to tell me what you are planning?"

"No. Not now. We don't trust you. You could be a spy. You could be a traitor. You could be ready to kill us all. We will get back to you, if we decide that it is wise." They got up, nodded at him and left the room.

Well. It was a start.

Another couple of days. Anjana left him alone and he felt… he felt some kind of elevation. A tiny spark of hope. He tried not to linger on it, since this galaxy had only taught him that there was barely anything good in it, but it still clung to his heart persistently. There was a part of him that had wished to die, and that part wasn't silenced. But there was also that part that wanted to stay. And if it was only to make sure that Bra would get away from this awful place. It had been his fault she had ended up here, and he would make sure she would get back. That had to be enough.

The note stuck to the bowl of food that was handed to him in the cafeteria, another meeting in another empty room. And if they wanted him to blow up the whole fucking ship… he would do it. He had killed all those Saiyans, even if he hadn't pulled the trigger. But he wanted to pull the trigger so desperately.

It were five of them who entered the room later that day. The older one from the first meeting and four Goten didn't know. He nodded, but stayed seated. He didn't want to look threatening to the small people.

"Goten, we decided. We were informed that you didn't comply with Nennaia. You tried to rebel. We are willing to take the risk."

He had rebelled? Because he'd tried to starve himself? Hadn't moved from that damn couch for weeks until Anjana had made him desperate enough? If that was enough rebellion for those people… he would take it.

"Thank you so much. What is the plan?"

And oh was it a beautiful one. They had only waited for someone like him to come along.

The last rule of developed societies: Always underestimate those you deem worthless.

Around 20 years ago, if Goten had gotten the time correct, Anjana's species had bought the planet of the scaled people from Freeza. Theoretically he knew that that was what Freeza did. But he didn't actually know what it meant. He thought it was about resources, but the planet had been on offer with everyone still on it. Good workers. Obedient species. No space travel. They had taken the ones they needed, killed the rest and sold the empty planet. They couldn't go back. But they didn't want to. They only needed a ship big enough to live on and someone to keep their captors away.

"We did everything here. Work they thought we were too dumb for we helped out. If we have a ship, we can re-write the programming, change the hull and get it away from the collective. They live on a moon, they think they are superior, they all do." Goten nodded along. His new friend, Trugsu, was of course right. It didn't matter if it was another city, another nation or another planet. Invaders were the same everywhere.

"When we are dirtside, most of the staff is on leave. No one cares what we do. I will re-arrange the surveillance in Hangar 3F4. Barely used. Huge ships they don't need. When we are in open space, we need to act quick. Get everyone inside. And then…"

And then Goten would blast the whole damn ship out of the sky. That had been the only flaw in their plan. They didn't have anyone with that firepower. Grinning, Goten said: "I like that plan. I like it so, so much."

Turgsu showed their teeth, wide and blunt and Goten assumed it was a smile. He smiled right back.

He wondered if Vegeta had felt it. The moment when he powered up to kill someone, back when he had still been doing it regularly. If all the pain, all the hurt that made his life a living hell with barely any hope of it getting better had been gone for that blissful moment when the energy concentrated in his arm and he could let it go, see the beautiful destruction it cause, the knowledge that in this moment, he was in control. He was the one determining if someone lived or died.

He wanted them dead. All of them.

They had already started firing when Goten had released his attack and despite not actually knowing if his body could take a few seconds in outer space he ascended and flew outside to kick away the energy beams they had sent to his rescue ship. The cold was starting to bite his arms and legs, his head was starting to get a little dizzy, but the flames that had expanded before an implosion in the reactor core sucked it back in and everything froze was too beautiful to watch.

He was a little numb afterwards, barely feeling his limbs. But his heart… felt more alive than in a long long time.