First DBZ fic in a while. I'll say it once now so no one whinges later "I do not own Dragon Ball Z."

The achievement of becoming a Super Saiyan - it was all he strove for; there was nothing else, no other distraction, no greater drive but that of pride and no further desire than that of a rightful supremacy over the blasted clown that had shamed him before his ancestry and before the memory of his upbringing.
How it stung! How it hurt… It was almost a living thing inside of him! Something deep within him that was squirming and screaming for release and absolution; his shame that he had failed to beat the clown during their battle on Earth, the disappointment and jealousy that he had failed to be the one to defeat Freeza, and the anger that where a miserable low class warrior had accomplished the stuff of legend and he could not!
Intolerable! Unbearable! Unforgiveable!
He would have satisfaction! He would have certainty!
His emotions boiling within him, reflected in his coal black eyes that smouldered like a stoked furnace, he clenched his teeth and crawled over to the console at the centre of the room, at 300 times normal gravity every effort was difficult in the strictest sense of the word, and now he was going to make it herculean just to prove he could do it.
The risk to his body was high, and the likelihood of adding injury to a body already tired and strained made this attempt very foolish.
He paused for a second and paid for it dearly – the weight slammed onto tired muscles and he gasped at the toll his back and arms took before he continued ahead out of stubborn determination.

The path to legendary status was no less demanding than this personal regime he had set for himself…! Perhaps by pressing further… he would be able to shorten the time between now… and the moment of triumph!
Nothing risked meant nothing gained…! It was time for the plunge!
He'd reached his destination, accomplishment brought new energy to his fatigued muscles and with a scowl of effort plastered on his face he lifted a hand trembling under the effort to find the setting he needed on a console that was a mere foot above his head, he fingered the pad delicately and finding the raised knob jutting out of the console and clenching his teeth in preparation he twisted the dial to a setting higher than his best efforts had managed.
Letting out a cry of anguish he regretted the choice the second he made it, the army on his back had just put on full heavy armour and called reinforcements! With a cry he slammed into the floor and moaned from the painful pressure…
"Oohh!" he groaned, eyes shut and teeth clenched in an attempt to supress the pain now, eh was dimly away that the lighting around had gone red, screens were flashing and behind the roaring of blood in his ears he could vaguely make out some kind of noise that sounded the sirens…
"Rrrghh!" he shoved himself sideways using all his combined mass and body strength to do so, he succeeded in rolling onto his back, only to realise how stupid it was to do so as all the pressure went onto his arms, legs and ribcage.
Muscles screamed in agony from the pressure, Vegeta would have screamed too only it seemed he was out of air! Opening his mouth and trying to breathe he was scared to realise that despite his efforts he couldn't inflate his lungs!
…Air!
Tears rolled from his streaming eyes, his mouth hung open in a silent scream and all the while the alarms flared with red light.
His world started to go black, he was scared to see red at the edges of his vision… blood in his vision… capillaries must be breaking behind his eyeballs…
His head rolled to one side and he saw the doorway lights come on and the keypad next to it going green, someone must be entering the GR room.
Vegeta's world went black as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Something hurt… well actually a lot of him hurt.
It hurt... badly.
He moaned, or rather he thought he moaned. He couldn't hear. He also couldn't see. But he could feel, and that was good. Feeling things meant he was alive.
He knew the difference, Freeza had killed him once. He knew what death felt like.
It had felt a lot like what had happened before in the GR room, except the last time it had been considerably swifter in coming and had been concentrated on only one part of his body by an energy blast shot from Freeza's hand.
Still, the lesson had been learned at the time. There were some things he could not do. Beating Freeza had been one of them.
But apparently he had not learned the more important lesson at the time. Limits… he had limits to what he could take as well as what he could do.
Well, this lesson was going to be well learned. Something burned inside his chest and he might had cried out in pain…
This lesson was going to be well learned if he lived through it he corrected himself hastily.
Regulate your breathing Vegeta, he told himself, feel your chest move as you breathe, use the pain don't fight it!
He took a deep breath in, ignoring the protest of his chest, and the exhaled. He repeated this again and again until something started to make sense…
"…tha… wa… … cl..se…" a voice was saying from a long way away.
"..still seriously wou-…! …on't know if… recover!" another said. Hn, male. Men should not sound so panicked. Panic did nothing for anyone.
"He will." Ah! That was familiar. Who was that again…?
He inhaled gently through his nose, perfume… perfume and shampoo.
That fragrance… fruit, soap and something chemical. Huh, it was the woman then.
"He's made of tough stuff, stupid man." He was pretty sure that last part was said under her breath by the higher octave and the hiss it sounded like. "He'll make it. At least he's breathing on his own now."
He stopped listening at that point and focussed on the ambient noise, the bleep of machines, the hiss of what sounded like a respiratory device, and some kind of low grunting noise… oh god, was that him?
He stopped himself breathing for a second the let out one long breath… yep, it was him.
Bad move stopping the breathing though, he could feel hands on his skin. Needles pricking his arms. Heh, at least he wasn't scared of needles unlike that big baby Kakarot. Honestly, the man would fight bare knuckle against enemies that most would have run screaming from without a second thought, but would panic at the sight of a measly little shot.
Pathetic really.
Something was being injected into him, it felt cold. Numbness spreading up his arms like ice… he tried to fight it, but he was simply too tired… yes, a little sleep would help rejuvenate him… the he could fight…

He opened his eyes again. Light burned for a moment but then cleared into painful but clear vision.
A room. He was in a small room. One of the rooms in the woman's house.
Hngh.
Well, it could be worse. At least they hadn't taken him to one of those so called hospitals here on Earth, honestly he wasn't sure he was up to a stranger telling him how to feel.
At least with the woman…
He blinked. Where was he going with that sentence? He didn't know. But more importantly! Was he healed yet? Could training recommence?
He tried lifting an arm, found it to be difficult but doable... for a few seconds anyway. He let it flop onto his chest where his fingers brushed over bandages, rather a lot of them too.
Oh. Was he not healed yet?
A noise caught his attention, a door opened and the woman walked in. She had something in her hands, some sort of food in a bowl.
Normally he would have sneered at the paltry amount she was holding, but with awareness had come a certain feeling of emptiness in his stomach.
Something was better than nothing.
She sat down next to him and seemed to notice only then that he was aware of her.
Her face twisted into one of aggravation and anger "Oh now you're awake! About time mister!" she snapped irritably.
He opened his mouth to say something scathing but all he managed was a hoarse grunt of protest.
She elected to ignore him and motioned to the steaming bowl beside her "Well I brought you something to eat before bedtime. Three days you've been out cold!" She said it as though she couldn't quite believe it had only been that long. She looked out of the window into the night sky before she turned her attention back to him and the soup "One thing I learned about Saiyans a long time ago is there's little you won't do for food. But in your case it seems there's little you won't do to scare the crap out of me too! Open up." she commanded.
He frowned and twisted his lips into a thin line of annoyance, but as his stomach complained he reluctantly complied.
As she spooned soup into his mouth she babbled on about the operation he'd been involved with during the last point of his recollection. All he could think of to say was, what the hell was she going on about?
He got his answer quickly enough as she put the soup bowl down heavily on the side and pointed an accusing finger at him.
"Four broken ribs mister! Four! You collapsed your lungs, traumatised most of the muscles in your arms, legs and chest, not to mention the blood loss you got from internal injuries! I told you to cut back on that training or at least give yourself time to recover between work outs – and then I discover you're going even beyond what the machine predicts you can handle! Idiot! You're lucky you're still breathing, let alone mobile!"
"What are you talking about! I… can barely… move!" he protested as he moved his hand away from his chest with difficulty to prove his point.
She snorted contemptuously "Yeah well, that's only for the moment, little comfort that does me! The doctors say you'll make a full recovery, not that they know how that's even possible given the state you showed up in. Lucky for you that you Saiyans have an overdeveloped recovery system to go with your over demanding expectations of yourselves!"
He managed a weak smile "Stronger after every time we fight…"
"…and more powerful after a near death experience? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" She demanded of him.
They glared at each other for a moment but then her face melted into one of concern and something else he couldn't place "Vegeta, if there's any truth to the statement 'what you get out of something is worth all the effort you put into it' then you deserve to be a super saiyan at least three times over at the rate you've trained yourself now." She sounded sympathetic and she sounded worried too.
Her words hurt to hear because he couldn't help but agree with them despite that he had not been able to reach the goal.
"…I know…!" he hissed angrily, he clenched a fist into a tight ball at his side "It's not fair!" something inside of him was hurting again and he twisted his face in discomfort at the feeling.

He felt something run down the side of his face… was he crying? No! Kami no! Please not in front of the woman! Not even alone would he let himself cry, because crying was pointless – it solved nothing and it only showed how weak you were…!
He managed a hiss of anger before something hitched in his breath and to his shame he realised he really was going to cry, and not even in a slightly dignified manner!
What hurt the most was that he wouldn't even be able to reach a hand up to wipe the tears away or hide his face from her because he couldn't move a damn muscle from overtraining himself almost to death!
He closed his eyes miserably and tried to turn his head away to retain some kind of dignity.
"Vegeta, are you okay?" she asked him, knowing full well he was not but obviously concerned.
"Leave me alone…!" he was hurt. Angry. Bitter.
He heard her sigh and felt her retreating from his side "Oh Vegeta… what am I going to do with you?" she asked him sadly.
"Just get out!" He snarled at her "...just leave me alone…" he half whispered to himself in a small voice as he began to sob silently, he couldn't quite believe how upset he was. He sounded like a stranger to his own ears, he hadn't heard himself cry in…
Well, he sounded pitiful. Really, were it not for the need to release all the emotions inside of him right now he'd normally have felt pretty pissed off with himself by this point.
Maybe she felt how badly he needed this too as after a moment she'd opened the door to leave him, she came rushing back over and rubbed him gently on the back.
She turned him back over and before he could protest at her seeing him in such a state she placed a finger to his lip and hugged him so she couldn't see him let it all out of himself.
When she was quite sure he was over the worst of it she gathered up the soup from the side, then after a slight hesitation she risked bending over and giving him a final kiss on the forehead.
He didn't know whether to hate her for the act of kindness she'd just shown him or hate himself for letting her see how much the vanity of his efforts really made him feel sometimes.
"You'll get there Vegeta. If anyone can find the way, you'll get there." She comforted him solemnly.

He said nothing as she turned off the lights and left him alone to sleep and recover himself, but she'd insisted on keeping the door open so he wouldn't feel completely alone.
Not that he'd wanted her to, or needed it…
Heavy with fatigue and feeling foolish with himself he sniffed hard and cleared his throat, reminding himself that there was nothing he could have done to prevent that hug she'd given him.
That would teach him not to act so foolishly in front of company, comfort was for weaklings.
Still, he couldn't bring himself to say it to her face, but he felt he owed her something for saying that last part for him.
"…Thank you…" he whispered into the darkness.

This is a multi chapter, there is obviously more to follow. please feel free to leave a review if you like this or if you have some suggestions for me.
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