Fanfiction: Vegeta and Bulma

Origins of a Saiyan Princess

Chapter 01 – Decision

The round sphere shot through space at amazing speed, darting through the everlasting darkness to some unknown place. Light fell upon one side of its contoured shape, slowly fading as it passed by a nearby star, travelling along its orbit before breaking free of the gas ball's gravitational pull continuing through the vast reaches of space. It made no sound as it passed through the vacuum. Inside the round object sat a dormant being shrouded in darkness as it slept. Although asleep, his thoughts still ran through his dreams, his desires running riot in his mind. Freeza.

Freeza seemed to appear more and more in his dreams – nightmares – the man's facial expression changed from calm to frustration. That monster... That monster had held him captive for too long now; he, the Saiyan Prince, still had to take orders from him. He had little say in the matter; this was Freeza after all; a cold ruthless killer who'd send his soldiers to purge planets of their inhabitants... and the prince was one of them. He was a prince; the prince of the mighty Saiyan race! It had been his birthright, his destiny to be the strongest Saiyan warrior in the universe and he lived up to that title. There had never been a battle he hadn't won with relative ease; there'd never been a foe he couldn't outclass... apart from him. It infuriated him that someone of his calibre would have to take orders but he knew better. He knew what Freeza was capable of. The prince knew he was no match for his strength and that trying to take him out now would be suicidal. Plus he had his lackeys; Zarbon and Dodoria would have to be dealt with alongside Freeza; the prince couldn't even match up to their strength, let alone match Freeza. He was currently too weak to consider making a move, as much as it boiled his blood to admit it. He wasn't stupid; he knew he'd need to keep biding his time. There would be a way out of their grasp, he knew it. He knew he wouldn't be under their command for all his life; he would be the one to take matters into his own hands and defeat Freeza. The only thing was how was he going to do it?

The buttons in front of him began to flash as the pod's computer system began some processes. Something which looked like steam was released, quickly dispersing and fading away inside the confined pod. The man's eyes slowly opened. He could see the planet up ahead; he'd finally arrived back at base. Somewhere down below was the site the ship was die to make contact. It consisted of a small colony made up of many races living upon a rocky outcrop, strange tall buildings rose from the rocky terrain almost camouflaged against the backdrop. The original inhabitants were long gone, all but wiped out when the group of aliens now living upon the planet first arrived. That had been years ago and the planet bared few scars of the slaughter. Only the inhabitant's buildings remained, now being used as a base for the alien's work.

The pod finally crashed into the landing pad with a thump; the absorbent material taking the force of the ship and dramatically lessening the force of the impact and minimising any damage to both ship and combatant. Three soldiers emerged out from the building opposite the landing site, followed by another man who appeared to be in less of a rush. As the pod door opened the three soldiers stood to attention, standing silently as the prince emerged out of the pod wandering past them in a manner that suggested he wasn't bothered if they were there or he simply hadn't notice them. The fourth man – a man who seemed to be of the same race as the Prince due to his skin and tail wrapped around his waist in similar fashion to him - bowed down slightly as the Saiyan approached him, although he still towered over the short prince. "Welcome back Vegeta, how did it go?"

"Dismally boring as usual," the traveller responded. "You could have handled it by yourself if you'd been here, Nappa. Even Raditz would have been enough for the job!" He walked past the taller man and into the building, Nappa following him inside.

"Sorry we weren't here, Vegeta," Nappa apologised. It was not wise to agitate Vegeta too much; the Saiyan warrior was the strongest out of all the Saiyans who'd survived their planet's destruction around twenty years ago. He could easily overpower Nappa and Raditz and kill them both in the blink of an eye. Thankfully he seemed to have some sort of mutual respect for both his underlings, Nappa often serving as his right-hand man due to his background and history with the Saiyan Prince. He'd known him from a very early age and had often accompanied him on missions.

"You both had your own missions to take care of," Vegeta muttered. "Damn that Freeza; it's been far too easy recently! There's no thrill or fun in this at the moment; I'm tired of being given easy assignments! I did not sleep for half a year to be sent to a planet full of pitiful weaklings!"

Nappa wasn't really sure what to say to this, so he chose instead to follow Vegeta down the hall in silence. The two walked down the seemingly endless corridor for quite some time before they arrived in a much larger room filled with several rows of tables and stools. They'd arrived in the cafeteria. Vegeta parked himself down on one of the many seats available and folded his arms, closing his eyes and concentrating on his thoughts. There had to be a way to overthrow Freeza; what was the surest way to do it? He paid little attention to anything else going on around him (leaving Nappa to sit quietly and concentrate on his own thoughts or sit awkwardly in silence); he didn't care about anything else. All he wanted right now was to march into Freeza's chambers, slay him and become the new ruler of the universe. The thought brought a smirk to his face.

The smirk hadn't gone unnoticed by Nappa. "What's up?" He asked.

Vegeta rose to his feet. "We're leaving, Nappa."

"Leaving?" Nappa repeated, "...but Vegeta, we've only just got here!"

The Saiyan Prince paid no mind to his underling's words and made for the door, heading back down the corridor, only turning down the third corridor on the right and heading towards his own quarters. Nappa realised this and grew a little restless. "Um... Vegeta? Shouldn't you report back to Freeza?" He asked. Usual protocol requested that anyone who'd arrived back from a mission – whether successful or not – would report back to Freeza. There was a high price to pay for those who did not return back successful and it was no rumour that those who often returned back without success never came back out from their master's chambers. There had been many incidents over the past years where Vegeta'd wandered past that one room and had seen soldiers mopping up blood stains from the floor and walls, a body being taken away to be thrown into the dump.

"Freeza can wait," Vegeta responded. "I have more pressing matters to attend to... and you don't have to keep following me around like a lost puppy, Nappa!"

The Prince was left alone as he entered his chamber, setting himself down on his bed and planning for the future. He'd decided Freeza needed to be dealt with but he didn't know how he was going to go about defeating him. Whatever happened, Freeza had to be killed so the Saiyans could reclaim their glory and become masters of the universe. He, as the Saiyan Prince, naturally would be the supreme ruler of the galaxy... Once more the smirk appeared on his face.

He could see it so clearly in his mind; dealing the final blow to Freeza whom would be begging for mercy just as the Prince finished him off. The thought played back countless times. It seemed so simple in his mind. Vegeta knew better than to just rush head-on against Freeza; he needed power. He needed more power! The continuous stream of easy assignments wouldn't give him power. His current power level would see him be blown away easily by the monster. He had to be cautious; he needed to keep biding time... what if his time never came? What if for some reason or another, he would be unable to defeat Freeza because of something else? What if when he thought it was time, he was wrong? The Saiyan race could not be allowed to vanish just like that! He refused to let his entire race be wiped out, least of all by that tyrant!

Vegeta shook himself out of his thoughts and sat himself up. What was he thinking foolish thoughts like that for? There was no way he was going to let himself be killed by him. He would be the victor; he would outlive Freeza...

The Prince soon decided he'd better report to his master before the tyrant sent his grubby henchmen to find him; no doubt he'd know of Vegeta's return. He'd always treated Vegeta as one of the soldiers he was 'fonder' of. The thought sickened Vegeta to no end and made his stomach churn. He'd prefer to keep the contents of his stomach from coming back up! He left his room and walked down the corridors, following the same pattern of turns and twists around the maze of corridors and halls; he'd been down them so many times before he was practically on autopilot now! Eventually he reached the doors and barged in. As usual, Dodoria and Zarbon had swung around to glare at the intruder, both shooting looks of resent and disgust as he walked through into the room. Freeza was ahead of them, sitting in his strange chair as usual.

"Vegeta, what have we told you about barging in uninvited?" Zarbon sneered venomously eyeing up the shorter warrior as he strode into the room.

Vegeta ignored the looks of venom Frieza's two henchmen were giving him. "Mission completed." He muttered.

"Oh?" Freeza's levitating chair turned so he fully faced the prince. "Well done Vegeta, naturally I knew you'd be able to do it." There was something about the smile on his face which rubbed Vegeta up the wrong way. It was almost as if he were trying to patronise him. Vegeta could feel his blood screaming for a fight but his mind and common sense kept him from launching an attack. Soon, he told himself.

"What's my next assignment?" Vegeta asked.

Freeza turned away, returning to his original position. "...Zarbon, find Vegeta another assignment to carry out, something a little more challenging for him. It wouldn't hurt to give him something a little tougher, just to test his abilities."

"As you command, lord Freeza," Zarbon bowed. The tall, slender and graceful warrior did not look at the Saiyan again. It had been made clear long ago to Vegeta that Zarbon did not like him, often taunting the Prince and working him like a slave. However despite Vegeta's fury at being treated like dirt by the warrior he knew in the end it would all work in his favour, so he continued to endure the demands without a word.

"Vegeta, you may return to your quarters until Zarbon gives you your next assignment," Freeza added. "I'm sure he won't take too long."

"Thank you lord Freeza," Vegeta bowed, trying to keep his nausea in. He hated having to stoop to this but he had no choice. He just had to keep the act up until that fateful day, that inevitable day... With that thought spurring him on, Vegeta turned and left the room.

The doors closed; Dodoria instantly turning to Frieza. "Lord Freeza, he's gone too far this time!"

"Let it go Dodoria," Freeza interrupted him. "Vegeta was very rude to interrupt us but I'm glad he appeared when he did... I wouldn't want him to overhear anything important after all."

Zarbon stepped forward. "... Lord Freeza? Did you have any particular assignment in mind?"

"... It doesn't really matter," Freeza answered. "I'm eager to see just how strong our prince has gotten. I'm pretty sure he's cottoning onto my plan so it would be wise to throw him off a little, even for a while."

"Plan?" Zarbon repeated slightly curious but not wanting to pry too much. He was very aware of the horrifying power his master was capable of, witnessing many of the brutal punishments and executions his master had made to those who pried too much.

"Vegeta is the strongest Saiyan fighter we have," Freeza continued. "He has shown us impressive potential for a Saiyan ever since he was a boy. It wouldn't surprise me if his power were to keep growing with every mission he completes. That is the reason I have decided to give him missions he can easily complete. If he has no problems in completing his missions, his power won't rise too high too fast and this way it allows us to monitor his power. We can't have him continuously having tough assignments; his power would start rising at a much higher rate."

Zarbon cottoned onto what Freeza was saying. "I see... So this way it allows us to keep a close check on his progress."

"Precisely," Freeza nodded. "I don't want him to get too strong; it would probably go to his head and make him think he could challenge me... After all, I've already had one Saiyan of royal blood revolt against me; it would be a shame to see his son make the same foolish mistake when I could use his power... You can both learn from this example; always keep an eye on a Saiyan because you can never trust a monkey."

Soon Vegeta was summoned by Zarbon and was given his next assignment. He then headed towards Nappa and Raditz's quarters and quite literally dragged them out!

"Another assignment?" Raditz blinked. "You've only just returned within the hour!"

"That doesn't matter," Vegeta replied. "It's much better than staying here in this boring place! Frieza reckons this one'll be more of a challenge than the last... I have an idea anyway and it involves the two of you."

"Us two?" Nappa repeated slightly surprised. "Why, what do you want us to do?"

Vegeta glanced behind himself to see if any prying ears were around. "... You two will go ahead of me; I'm going to take a detour before I join you. There's something I need to take care of before this mission."

"What's the assignment?" Raditz asked.

"Conquer planet Paeri," Vegeta replied with a smirk. "We all know there are a few Paerians working for Freeza; seems he wants the rest of them wiped out."

"Planet Paeri eh?" Nappa grinned in anticipation. "Sounds like fun. I'm in."

"It's about time we had a challenge on our hands," Raditz smirked equally as eager as Nappa.

"So what'll you be doing in the meantime Vegeta?" Nappa asked.

"I'll explain on the way," Vegeta responded. "We leave immediately."

The three Saiyans headed towards the launching bays, Vegeta not quite giving his personal mission away but giving Nappa and Raditz an idea of why he was doing it. Freeza had to be eliminated and he had to be eliminated by a Saiyan's hands. Even if it turned out it wasn't by Vegeta's hands...

Within five minutes of reaching their spacepods the three Saiyans took off into space, headed for their destination... or so it appeared to those tracking them via radar. Once they'd left the radar field of the planet they'd been on, Vegeta punched a few keys into the computer. "Computer, we're going to take a little detour," he commanded. "Give me all the planets with inhabitants who roughly have the same features as a Saiyan within a two month-journey from Planet Paeri."

"Yes Prince Vegeta," the computer began to run a scan, buttons flashing rapidly as it did so. "Scan complete."

"Are there any low-threat planets within the list?" Vegeta asked. "Single them out and pick the nearest one to Planet Paeri. I wish to set a course to whatever planet that is."

"Very well Prince Vegeta. The nearest planet with minimum-threat status would be eighteen days away from current position and twelve days away from Planet Paeri. Setting course now."

Vegeta sat back and folded his arms. The static mist was released into the pod. Vegeta closed his eyes and felt himself drift to his slumber. He only had eighteen days to wait...