.
He usually did his training in the gravity room. Occasionally that became stifling and he'd go out into the wilderness to train. There was something to be said for infinite amounts of space and being able to fly quickly without having to worry about smashing into a wall.
It was one of those days when it happened. Something familiar came streaming out of the sky and crash landed a valley over from him.
Vegeta paused. That looked like a….
He was off towards it in an instant.
As soon as he came hovering over the impact crater he could see it was exactly what he thought it was. He hadn't seen a space pod in years. He warily sensed out the occupant, but the energy signature was so weak he could barely feel it.
The door of the space pod opened… nothing moved.
Vegeta stared. He folded his arms across his chest for a moment, then gracefully landed. Now that he was in front of it he could see someone or something inside the pod but nothing was coming out.
He growled softly, every sense on alert as he stalked towards it. Whoever it was, they were on his turf, on his planet and that made him angry.
He got within a few feet of the pod when the occupant finally moved, stood, stepped into the light.
Vegeta's blood ran chill and he froze.
The being lifted its head. Red eyes stared up at him.
Vegeta instantly started to power up. Those red eyes widened and he went down with a cry, falling to his knees and throwing his arms across his face. "Please don't kill me!" he exclaimed in a higher pitched version of a very familiar voice. "I'm not him!"
He almost did it. Almost. The faint dart of old fear had quickly been replaced with rage and he wanted nothing more but to incinerate this creature and his pod. The pleading cry was what stopped him, or at least gave him pause enough to look. HE would never beg like that.
He took a deep breath and his brow knit. The being trembled on its knees, arms still up, tail wrapped protectively around his legs - what remained of his tail that is. Long scraps decorated his entire body, staining the white and purple with crusted deep red. He was injured then, heavily by the looks of it. That explained the lack of power. He was small too, smaller that the first, and his voice…
His eyes widened and he dropped his hand. He was a child.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice harsh. "Why do you look like Frieza?" The boy flinched and didn't lower his arm.
"I'm a clone," the boy said, his voice breathy with fear.
Clone… Vegeta inspected him as he sat there in the dirt and shook. Frieza died ten years ago. If this boy was created at that time… he would be no more than ten. "Why are you here?" he said finally.
The boy slowly lowered his hands and looked up at him.
"Don't look at me," Vegeta snapped, irrationally, and the boy obeyed immediately, going down on his hands and knees, his head kept low.
"They said someone here could protect me," he said softly. "Someone who wouldn't care what I looked like."
That baffled Vegeta for a moment, until he figured it out. Kakarrot. They must have meant Kakarrot. The strongest man in the universe who had a habit of letting mass murders go instead of killing them. Prime example… "Frieza met his end here," Vegeta said, lip curling in disgust. Why was he even trying to speak to it?
If anything that made the boy shake more and he lowered his head down until his forehead touched the earth. The shaking stopped and the boy relaxed. "I was set up," he said softly. There was a low note of helplessness to his voice.
Vegeta marched forward, kicking the boy so that he sprawled onto his back. He placed a foot in the middle of his chest, pinning to the ground. The boy kept his head rolled to the side, resolutely staring into the trees instead of up at Vegeta. Vegeta could see then that the injuries also extended to his face, it looked like the protective wall of flesh around his ear had been half torn off. Vegeta frowned.
"Who sent you?" he demanded to know.
The boy drew in a trembling breath. "Men… kidnapped me from my creators. They – they hurt me… said I was weak… a mockery of my - the original. One… one of them took pity. He put me in the space pod and told me someone will help me here," he dared to look up at Vegeta, and there was a tired look on the boy's face, his eyes half lidded. "He lied," he said, sounding far older than a child now. Vegeta recognized the despairing and defeated look on his face. He expected to die.
"Don't look at me," Vegeta repeated with a soft snarl, and the boy looked away again. He shut his eyes and Vegeta could see the faint glimmer of tears against the pale white skin.
Energy flickered in Vegeta's hand and he raised it. For a long he stood there, frozen in place. Finally he snarled softly and lowered his hand again. He couldn't kill it. This wasn't Frieza. He may be a copy, but he was already beaten, broken and defeated… helpless.
And young. He thought of Trunks… this boy was about the same age as his own son. He thought of Kakarrot too. Kakarrot would not be happy to find out he killed a weak and helpless child because of what he looked like. He growled to himself and removed his foot.
For a long moment the boy didn't move. When he did he rolled onto his side, curling up in to a fetal position. The tail came up again - about a third of it was missing - what remained wrapped around the boy's body protectively. He remained like that.
Vegeta stared. "Get up," he said finally with disgust.
"Why?" the boy replied warily, even as he uncurled and started to move.
Vegeta let out a growl, powering up, and the boy got to his feet quickly, cowering up against the side of the space pod, leaning against it for support. His wide eyes met Vegeta momentarily and then he remembered and looked away again, trying to look anywhere but at Vegeta.
It was then that Vegeta saw he wasn't putting any weight on one of his legs, his foot was raised off of the ground by a tiny bit. Lame then, to go with the battered tail and abuse that decorated the rest of his body. He whimpered as Vegeta stalked towards him, falling back against the side of the space pod.
"Please," he whispered. He held out a hand as if to ward him off as his tail lashed. "Please…"
Vegeta paused, his eyes narrowed.
He made a decision. The boy didn't even see him move. Vegeta hit the boy in the neck with the side of his hand and the boy collapsed, unconscious, into the dirt.
.