Chapter 1: A King's Decision
Disclaimer: There is no real need for any. The purpose this story should be apparent and is written for the enjoyment of everyone.
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The last time King Vegeta looked at his progeny, he had been filled with an overwhelming sense of regret and pride. Regret because his son's life would be altered for the worse, and pride because of the warrior he had grown into at such a young age.
Prince Vegeta seemed to have been born for this purpose, displaying a warrior's instinct that was unfathomable for someone who had not even yet matured as a fighter. However, he had many years to go before he could reach his true potential, and King Vegeta thought grimly to himself that maybe it was his destiny to ensure that his son survived long enough to reach that point.
Ever since the Saiyan race had come under the servitude of Lord Frieza, King Vegeta knew it was only a matter of time before the Arcosian prince decided that they were expendable. Saiyans with their lust for battle along with their gift for enhancing their battle prowess after every fight were bound to become a thorn in the tyrant's backside eventually. With Frieza being as clever as he was, it was inconceivable that he not made plans for the day when he no longer required the Saiyan's services.
With the weight of these thoughts swirling around in his head, King Vegeta realizes that he has only one course of action left to take. The decision made, he sends word to summon his most trusted aide and commander of the Saiyan army, Nappa, to his side. Almost immediately, the Saiyan commander walks into throne room cautiously not knowing why his King had decided to call for him at this late hour.
"My King how may I serve you at this time", Nappa asks. King Vegeta glances outside the huge windows of his throne room. "Tell me Nappa what do you see when you look outside?"
Nappa not knowing if this was one the King's usual attempts at playing mind-games answers hesitantly, "I don't know my King what I am supposed to see". The King snorts before replying, "Only what is before your eyes my obtuse friend, which in this case happens to be our day of reckoning."
"My King I apologize I am unable to understand the meaning behind your words. To what is it that you are referring to?"
The King finally steals his gaze away from the view outside and looks at Nappa, who is shocked to see the King's eyes burning with rage. "My King is everything alright?" questions Nappa.
King Vegeta laughs, "you fool we are all in danger at this very moment. Or have you forgotten who has been hovering above our planet for these past three days." Nappa stares at the King before realizing whom King Vegeta is referring too. "Oh my apologise sire, you must be referring to Freiza. However, why did you say that our day of reckoning has arrived and what does that have to do with Frieza. He is only waiting for all the Saiyans to return from their missions so that he can address all of us in person. Right?"
"How big of fool do you need to be Nappa. You know how much the Arcosian hates our kind. Do you really think that he would travel half way across the universe just to come here and give us an inspirational speech. He could have asked any one of his minions to that for him or better yet he could have done so through those damn scouters he forces us to wear at all times", the King exclaimed. "And if it was a visit of paramount importance then he would have already come down here, given us our orders, threatened us if we disobeyed or failed him, and left immediately."
Nappa's brows tensed as he digested the meaning behind the King's words. Not being one for these types of mind-games, he is unable to come up with a suitable response to the King's dilemma. Therefore, he opts for the simple response, "Sire, so what would you have me do at this time?"
King Vegeta sighs knowing that he had unjustly taken out his frustrations on someone who does not deserve it. "What I need is for you to do this one last favour for me, my trusted friend. Take the Prince, put him in one of our space pods and send him far away from here. I fear that our time on this planet is coming to an end." Nappa looks as if he is about to object, but the King interjects him before he can say anything "I know you will have some reservations but this needs to be done. Just do as your King commands you." The solider in Nappa immediately falls in line with the King's orders, however with one question remaining on his tongue, "my King you will not go with him or do you mean for me to do so?"
"I cannot and neither can you. Our power levels are too high for us to escape unnoticed. These damn scouters are able to read to pick up a person's power level from miles away and you can be sure that the personnel on Frieza's ships will be equipped with them. So the only one who can pass undetected through Frieza's blockade is someone whose power is yet still too low to be tracked through these devices."
Nappa defers to King Vegeta's logic. "I shall give you some time then my King to say your farewells to your son."
"No need I have already said what I needed to say to him. Not that he seemed to care an iota the little shit," the King said fondly. "In the meantime Ill create a distraction so that you have time to jettison the boy off into space without anyone noticing." As Nappa turns to leave, King Vegeta shares his final parting words with him "this is goodbye my trusted friend, it has been an honor to serve with you." "I hope to see you in the afterlife as equals without any titles or ranks to get in the way," and with that King Vegeta gestures to Nappa to leave.
Nappa feeling his sense of respect for King Vegeta grow even greater, gives a quick bow before running off towards the Prince's room. Nappa barges in and finds Prince Vegeta sitting on the floor meditating with his Ki flaring around him. He has already gained a healthy level of control over his Ki thought Nappa to himself. However, with time being of the essence, he pushes these thoughts aside and yells at the Prince to follow him, as he needs to evacuate due to an emergency.
Prince Vegeta opens his eyes and smirks at Nappa as if he did not care for any type of emergency but surprisingly still follows Nappa outside. "Is this Father's doing" Vegeta drawls.
"Yes he means for you to escape this planet so I need you obey my directions. You understand?"
Vegeta looks scornfully at Nappa, "if it means being rid of this boring place and that bald-ass head of yours then by all means lead the way." Nappa swears silently to himself, as he does not have time for a rebuttal but is still pleased that the Prince has agreed to come with him.
They arrive to an abandoned landing/take-off strip. "Huh I wonder where everyone went to," Nappa thinks to himself. Just then, he feels a burst of Ki shatter his senses and he starts to look around for where the energy originated.
Not seeing anything on the ground, he looks up at the sky and sees a large Saiyan contingent flying towards the exosphere of the planet. Nappa makes out King Vegeta, while the other Saiyans accompanying him were the most powerful combatants in the Saiyan army. Comprehending the seriousness of the situation, Nappa immediately sets off to find a space pod that would take Prince Vegeta off this planet. Space pods came in various sizes as the purpose of the smaller-sized pods is for transporting infiltration babies (low-level warriors) to planets selected by the Saiyans for take-over, which in this case would be the perfect fit for Prince Vegeta.
Sensing that Prince Vegeta is not in the same location as where he had left him, Nappa starts to feel slightly frantic until he sees him standing somewhat further ahead next to a small-sized space pod which had been fortunately left intact.
"That was my Father's Ki was it not," Prince Vegeta says to Nappa when the taller Saiyan lands beside him.
Not knowing what he should tell the boy, Nappa struggles with his words until the Prince cuts him off, "don't bother I can already guess as to what my Father has in mind, so lets not waste any more off this opportunity that his bravado has created for us." Nappa remembering the earlier scene where the King had interjected him in a similar manner cannot help but see the resemblance between the young Prince and his Father. Although the Prince could be a bit more diplomatic in his speech, Nappa fumed to himself.
"You are correct my Prince in your assessment, so instead of lecturing me why don't you get inside of that pod so that we can get this show on the road" said Nappa while using one of his favorite idioms.
The Prince somewhat shocked at his subordinate's breach of etiquette, gets in wordlessly into the pod while Nappa sets about searching for a planet to lock into the pod's navigational system. After finally finding a world suitable for the Prince to remain safe on for a while, Nappa quickly logs in the relevant coordinates while ensuring that pod's central computer has also completed its pre-flight safety checks. Satisfied that all systems are go, Nappa spares a final glance at his Prince before closing pod's door from the outside. The space pod's computer gets to work as it induces its sole occupant into a statis-like state for the journey ahead. Nappa backs away a few feet as the space pod's computer having completed its final checks begins its countdown before take-off.
A glowing energy aura surrounds the space pod and upon reaching the end of the countdown, it launches itself into the upper atmosphere leaving an energy tail in its wake similar to that of a comet. Nappa watches as the space pod flies off carrying with it the hopes of an entire species. Seeing that he has fulfilled his duty, Nappa begins to fly in the direction where he last saw his King going until he stops in his tracks midflight due to appearance of the largest ball of energy that he has ever seen in his life. A fiery ball of energy seems to be approaching the planet as it engulfs his entire field of vision so that whichever way Nappa looked it seemed as if the sky was itself on fire.
"That has to be largest Ki blast I have ever seen in my life" Nappa could only wonder in horror as to who was the creator of such menacing magnitude of Ki. Before he can contemplate his next course of action, Nappa sees a purple color Ki blast hurtling towards the fiery ball of energy. Nappa immediately identifies whose energy that belongs to and simultaneously re-doubles his efforts to reach the King in time. While speeding towards his destination he sees other energy blasts shoot upwards and can only surmise that the Saiyan contingent he had seen earlier is attempting to halt the progression of the fiery energy ball. However, despite their attempts the energy ball keeps on continuing along its path. Nappa unleashes more of his Ki in a bid to boost his speed, while also starting to feel weak from the heat radiating from the energy ball the closer he gets.
He can finally make out King Vegeta and the other Saiyan forces around him. Even from this distance, Nappa can tell that almost everyone has exhausted their Ki, save for a few remaining Saiyans including King Vegeta who are valiantly continuing their push against this unstoppable force. Nappa pleads to anyone listening that he be able to make it in time so that he even if they fail he would be able to die alongside his King in combat. However, no one answers his prayers and Nappa can only watch in dismay as the energy ball incinerates all of his comrades' one after the other.
Hearing his comrade's dying screams, Nappa feels tears begin to swell up in his eyes. He angrily wipes them away and gathers his courage so that he can go down swinging (another one of his favourite idioms) just like his dead comrades. Yelling several profanities Nappa lets loose a torrent of Ki blasts, and continues his onslaught until he is suddenly aware that he can no longer feel his arms. Looking down he sees that he has burnt through the flesh on his hands. Instead of screaming in pain, Nappa begins to laugh like a maniac. The energy ball has reached close enough now that Nappa could almost kiss it if he dared to lean in a bit further.
Before disintegrating, an image of a grown-up Prince Vegeta pops up in Nappa's head except that the Prince had blonde hair and teal colored eyes. Somehow, this image brings a sense of comfort and relief to Nappa as he passes away into nothingness.
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The minute the energy ball reached the core, Planet Vegeta exploded into a series of brilliant white lights as the shockwaves generated from the explosion sent debris hurtling in every direction. Frieza watches on smugly at Planet Vegeta's annihilation. It had been so simple he had no idea why he had not done it sooner. Sure, the monkeys may have had their uses but he could not live with the anxiety of knowing that someday they might grow too powerful for even him to control. The rumors of a Super Saiyan appearing from within the Saiyan ranks especially irked Frieze to no end. However, now everything that ailed him is gone he could finally go back to ruling his galactic empire in peace. Anxiety is terrible for the skin after all and Frieza being the perfectionist that he is could not afford for his purple skin to loose its unique smoothness.
"Haha, I'm feeling unusually cheery Zarbon," Frieza informs his sycophant follower. "Why don't we celebrate this momentous occasion with a drink. Go and tell one of the servants to bring two glasses along with my favourite beverage. I want you to join me for a toast. It's not everyday that an entire species is eradicated by my hand."
"Yes my Lord I will see to it at once," Zarbon said in a loving tone reserved for the emperor.
As Zarbon left his side, Frieza commences to hum at feeling the joy of extinguishing so many lives at once. "I don't think I will ever grow tired of this feeling. Now there are no more Saiyans left in this universe to challenge me. Let us hope that damned cat is pleased that I did his bidding for him. Not that's what I call killing two birds with one stone." Frieza continues his humming unaware that a certain Saiyan had survived the explosion of his planet, and is headed towards a world that had no idea of the impending doom approaching it.