Reforged
A DBZ One-Shot
In the white void of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, a lone Saiyan felt himself simultaneously burning to ashes and freezing solid at the same time. Jolts of electricity contrasted sharply with the blunt, scraping sensation of stone on skin.
Vegeta, the prince of all Saiyans, was hunched, coiled tightly to protect himself from this intangible assault on his nerves. He was deep in the chamber, almost too far from the entrance to be safe. His spiky hair was golden- he was charged to his maximum Super Saiyan power.
His blue armor was torn and scratched from the differing environs, but the prince's sea-green eyes burned with more determination than ever. Still, his body was reaching its upper limits. No matter how hard he pushed, his body was going to give out on him soon, and he was going to die.
Vaguely, he sensed Future Trunks not much farther away. The boy was clearly undergoing the same hellish challenges as him, and there was no guarantee that Trunks would be able to reach him before his heart beat its last.
He threw punches at kicks at what appeared to be an ever-shifting lavender smoke monster, one of the chamber's most insidious trials. The creature was able to take on many forms and fighting styles, its skills so varied Vegeta wasn't sure if it was the work of the chamber or merely an illusion brought on by his tired and overheated brain. How could he fight against his own rebellious psyche?
The mist morphed, and Vegeta recognized an all-too-familiar visage. It was a female, her expression cloying and seductive while simultaneously mocking. Her blonde hair whipped around her porcelain face in the strong winds of the Time Chamber. Around her feet, miniature whirlwinds whipped about.
"Why do you bother, Prince? Why do you waste your life in pursuit of fleeting strength? You know you'll never be the best, right? Not while Son Goku still exists." Android 18 laughed viciously.
Vegeta's eyes snapped open. "Silence! I am the greatest of all Saiyans, the savior of my race and rightful overlord of this universe! You may have defeated me once, but now I am stronger, much stronger than you will ever be!" He roared, flaring his golden aura in a show of force.
She smiled coldly. "Your power is but a slave to time- my infinite energy core will allow me to live on and on, while your name will be less than a footnote in history, and your body a meal for the worms."
Vegeta charged twin spheres of energy in his hands and fired them and the beautiful android. "No- it is the Super Saiyans whose names will echo in the halls of history! It is our bodies that shall live on in Other World!"
The blasts created a plume of smoke that obscured her from his vision, and he dared to hope that his effort was successful. However, it was not to be.
When the dust settled, the smoke had reformed into an even more hated figure. Sleek and nimble, a white-skinned alien with distinctive purple plating and cold red eyes mirthlessly chuckled at Vegeta, who was in shock. The gales of wind vanished, leaving a still, unsettling silence.
"So, you think that having gold hair makes you special, Vegeta? It doesn't. You are nothing but an errant servant of a greater man- me!" Frieza cackled. "A monkey fit for nothing more than indiscriminate slaughter in the name of my empire." Pillars and spires of pure ice rose skyward around the emperor of the frost demons.
Vegeta's rage dimmed somewhat, replaced by another familiar emotion- disdain. "Those are strong words, coming from a dead man! Your empire is gone now, Frieza." The Saiyan prince could see his breath, and he fought not to shiver in the cold.
To Vegeta's surprise, Frieza only laughed harder. "And who has taken my place? Certainly not you, not since you've settled down with an earthling whore. Not since you have sired a half-breed mutant. All hail Vegeta, the proud prince of nothing." The demon sardonically hissed.
Once he heard his former master insult his family, Vegeta launched forward and threw an earthshaking punch. It connected in satisfying fashion, blowing apart the ghost of Frieza in an explosion of dark fire.
"I have no use for an empire, or for immortality. All I want….all I want is to be the best, to be the hero for at least one glorious, shining moment." Vegeta was surprised to hear the words spill past his lips, but they felt so right once they were said. He was born of royal blood, destined to rule over planets and lead men of all races and species into battle. Vegeta could take an almost limitless amount of physical punishment, and he could certainly hold his own in a battle of wits. There was only one thing in the universe he truly feared.
Living in the shadow of another man. Being marginalized, shunted off to the side, reduced to the measly status of a follower. Appropriately, the purple clouds in front of him began to shift form once again.
Frieza disappeared along with the cold. The temperature swung wildly, and it was now unbearably dry and hot. The ground cracked and crusted, and Vegeta could vaguely feel the sensation of sunlight all over his skin. Sweat rolled down his forehead as he struggled to maintain his Super Saiyan transformation.
His eyes unconsciously traveled upwards, and he saw the blinding, omnipresent sun that shone upon everything in the world. Vegeta squinted, and he could see a silhouette in the light, a shadow of a man. The shade lowered, and once he saw whom it was, the prince audibly gasped.
It was none other than his greatest enemy, Son Goku, known to Vegeta by his Saiyan name, Kakarott. Goku wore an uncharacteristically derisive sneer- the expression seemed perverse on the normally kind and pure-hearted Saiyan. Even Vegeta felt deeply bothered by it, knowing that Kakarott would never look at anyone that way- not unless he was in the throes of rage.
Vegeta broke into a straight flight, rushing towards Kakarott as fast as possible, although he did not know what he was trying to do. Golden energy swirled around Goku, and soon enough, he and Vegeta were both Super Saiyans.
The moment before Vegeta came within arm's length, Goku raised two fingers to his forehead and teleported away with the Instant Transmission technique. Vegeta snarled and rushed after him again, only for Goku to vanish just as easily as before.
"Keep up, Vegeta. Outpacing you is just too easy. Really, it's kinda weird that you seem to consider us rivals. It's not like you'll ever have a chance of beating me. I don't know why you even try. You should just learn your place like the rest."
Of course, Goku would never say such words, but Vegeta didn't care. Never before had his deepest fears been so succinctly articulated. The prince's eyes were completely white, his pupils vanishing in rage. He gnashed his teeth and felt his ki strain at the edges of its maximum capacity.
"I will never again be in your shadow!"
He imagined himself bigger, bigger than the androids, Frieza, and Kakarot combined. As the want, no, the need to be bigger floated to the center of his mind's eye, Vegeta felt his physical body swelling to accommodate the desire.
As his muscles increased in size, Vegeta felt his ki reserves increasing as well. It was still his prideful, dark energy, but there was much more of it. It was like comparing the storage capacity of a cup to a bathtub. Vegeta scarcely believed that such sheer quantities of energy were even possible. He was now easily five to six times stronger than Frieza had ever been.
At once, the nightmarish illusions were banished, and Vegeta once more found himself standing in the expansive white void of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, his newly engorged muscles taut and ready for battle. He felt fresh and ready for another round of training, but his mind knew better. Relaxing, he let the transformation ebb and returned to his base state.
In the distance, Vegeta registered Trunks soaring towards him, the boy from the future in his Super Saiyan form as well. "Father!" He yelled. Vegeta simply stood there, awaiting his son's arrival with odd patience.
Trunks dropped to the ground, his expression a mix between shock and wonder. "I felt your energy…you did it. You surpassed the Super Saiyan." The boy whispered.
Reforged into a new warrior, Vegeta grunted. "Of course, wasn't that what we came here to do? Don't look so surprised. There are still even further greater heights to climb. We must not stop, not until we surpass perfection itself."
A/N
What's good everyone, thanks for reading the story.
Yeah, I'm a bit of a Vegeta fanboy, have been ever since I first watched the series as a child. I've always admired his tireless determination to be the best, regardless of how often life knocked him down. There is something admirable in his struggle, and I feel his journey reflects many of our own. He and the other DBZ characters are part of the inspiration that helped lose 50 lbs a few years back lol. I hope anyone who has had a similar experience can appreciate this tale.
This story was mainly inspired by two of my favorite scenes from the series, the first being Trunks' flashback to him and Vegeta training the Time Chamber, and the second being Vegeta's nightmare about being unable to catch up to Goku and Trunks before the Android saga. This story aimed to evoke a similar mood as those scenes. I hope you all enjoyed!