Summary: After failing to purge a planet in the name of Frieza, the frost demon tyrant summons Vegeta to endure yet another one of his merciless beatings. Oneshot. Takes place shortly before the Saiyan Saga.
"Do you think he knows yet?"
The three Saiyan warriors sat in a slightly darkened room which stank heavily of rotting meat. On the floor, they lay each in their 'beds', which were comprised of a hard mattress and a rockhard old pillow that had been there for Kai knows how long. They were horribly uncomfortable, but lucky for them they hardly stayed at the station for more than a day before clearing out to complete their next series of assignments.
"We've been back for a total of 13 minutes." Raditz clicked a button on the side of his Scouter, and the overlay updated as the device emitted a small 'beep'. "14 now."
Nappa sat up slightly "So that's a yes." he cracked one of his knuckles and shifted around in his bed trying to get as comfortable as he could. Truth be told, Nappa wasn't all that bothered by the terrible rock-like slab that he called a 'bed', he had slept on much, much worse before. He shifted around more out of uneasiness.
Vegeta, their prince and leader of the squad, sighed, knowing full well what was coming.
They had failed one of their assignments.
And Frieza didn't take too kindly to failure.
"In the Planet Trade Organization..." the whip crackled down across the prince's skin, creating another deep slice causing him to grunt, the small groan betraying his true feeling of utter pain and torment "Failure is NEVER acceptable." The tyrant once told him.
After that, Vegeta made sure to ALWAYS do his best on the assignments. And he had done pretty well too, not a single failure in the past 2 years. But now, he had gone and done it. He had gone and done it real good, and Frieza was no doubt angry and ready to take it out on him.
Being the prince of all Saiyans, Frieza made it clear to Vegeta that any failure on the job was his fault and his fault only. So for the most part, Nappa and Raditz were spared from the icy tyrant's beatings. Of course, once Frieza was done punishing Vegeta, Vegeta usually unleashed his frustration on his fellow Saiyans.
It was only fair to Vegeta. It wasn't fair in the slightest that the weight of the failure was thrown onto Vegeta and Vegeta only, and Frieza more than likely knew this. He just wanted to take any opportunity he had to beat Vegeta. It seemed Vegeta was his favorite plaything, and Vegeta shuddered as he remembered the countless hours spent being tormented physically and mentally by the tyrant.
Vegeta and his crew had only failed a total of 4 assignments, the first 2 being when they were still starting out and ran into trouble on the planet they were purging when a warrior or two appeared that were, as much as Vegeta hated to admit it, LEAGUES above their own power. And after a one sided battle, the Saiyans HAD to call in backup.
It was after those times being overpowered, they returned to the port battered and broken while whatever backup Frieza sent usually took over the planet and easily destroyed any threat that the Saiyans found too great to overcome.
Of course, Frieza always sent the Ginyu Force to the planet, and specifically told Vegeta and his team to stay and wait for their arrival, and upon arriving, the Ginyu Force 'warmed up' by humiliating and attacking the Saiyans, and the Saiyans' power being far below that of the Ginyu Force were unable to defend themselves and were forced to take whatever was dished out.
Upon returning to port, Frieza allowed the Saiyans to use the training rooms, which was a very rare thing. Frieza apparently didn't want any of his minions training AT ALL, and if you asked Vegeta, he would have some varying opinions on it.
"Oh he's just a coward... Scared is what he is... Scared that if he lets me in that training room for too long I'll come out miles above him, no - I'll come out more than that... I'll come out a Super Saiyan!" Vegeta had ranted to his fellow Saiyans loudly about Frieza's training restrictions many times, and they agreed.
Frieza was so strict on the 'no training' rule so much that he even had power level reader sensors installed in each of the crew quarters to detect when a soldier was exerting his or her power past it's usual limit, and if that was occurring it meant that either someone was training, or someone was fighting. And that usually was punishable by death, or if it was the latter, they were sent to the station's arena to battle to the death for the amusement of all who acme to watch.
But of course before being allowed to use the training room, Frieza always had Vegeta go directly to him for some special 'lessons'... And everyone knew what that meant. Truth be told, Vegeta WANTED to be beaten and attacked by Frieza... With each near death beating and following healing pod session, his power level grew on account of his Zenkai, and as said before, not being able to train, Vegeta atleast felt relief that at the end of the Hellish torment was atleast a better power level.
It was because of the fact Vegeta and Vegeta alone was beaten to near death so many times that his power level was so far greater than his fellow Saiyans, but he would never admit to that.
The other 2 assignments they failed was only because they were usually missions that weren't the standard 'go to this planet and destroy everyone on it.' mission and something that was actually one with a complicated objective. In one of those cases for example, they were told to assassinate a king of a planet, and they ended up destroying the entire city... Frieza was, to say the least, very displeased that his client did not end up getting what he wanted. Of course Frieza cared little about what the client wanted. Infact he killed the one who hired his organization before doing a 'training session' with Vegeta even.
While for the most part, the training session was just a beating, Frieza actually did make a small effort of teaching Vegeta something that he didn't know and actually found useful for future assignments. For instance, it was through Frieza that Vegeta learned how to more effectively use his Ki attacks.
"Don't show off, monkey." he told him. "You haven't the power to be a show off, so no flashy fancy Ki attacks... Efficiency over elegance. I can be as flashy as I want, because I'm all powerful... You though... Each Ki attack you have shown me so far has had too many examples of you just throwing off power like it was nothing. You have limits like it or not... Now, try that attack again... This time though, less flashy more damage."
As much as he didn't like saying it, Vegeta had realized that with the amount of raw power Frieza had, he did know a thing or two about Ki and fighting. Frieza had pretty much killed the most powerful beings in the galaxy, so naturally he had picked some knowledge up, and Vegeta was grateful for each scrap Frieza threw him...
Back in the Saiyans' room, each second of silence that passed felt like an hour to Vegeta and finally, his Scouter beeped and a red (!) notification appeared in the upper left corner of the screen.
That was Frieza calling him.
Wordlessly, he crawled out of his 'bed' and set out down the hall, mentally and physically preparing himself for what was going to happen.
He wondered down the hall, a blank look on his face which betrayed the true fear he felt on the inside, the fear of knowing that he was going to be subjected to yet another one of Frieza's terrible beatings. He tried his best to see the bright side, "I'll be stronger after this... The fool will make me stronger..." but truth be told, the promises of greater power failed to comfort him in the slightest. The last time he had been beaten was only 4 weeks ago... Frieza always managed to find some reason to torture the Saiyan prince it seemed.
But this was different - This time Frieza had a genuine real reason to feel anger towards the prince, and Frieza was the last being in the universe you wanted to be angry at you... Something Vegeta had realized time and time again.
Countless different species of alien soldiers walked through the halls, some in groups chattering in their alien tongue conversing about whatever was going on at the time on the station, and, although they didn't notice it, they all always made the conscious effort to stay clear of Vegeta, for he had definitely made his name known around Frieza's ranks as being particularly angry and willing to kill for minor incidents.
One time a new soldier bumped into Vegeta on the way to his pod... The soldier was later found hanging by his entrails in the loading bay. Not a pretty sight for the janitor(slave) who had to clean that mess of blood and gore up.
Vegeta rounded the corner and stepped foot into a particularly lonely hall, and at the end of this lonely hall was the reason WHY is was so lonely... At the end of the hall was a large, heavy blast door which lead into Frieza's command room. Occasionally, one of Frieza's generals or commanders would leave the room to go see about the operation of a sector or area of the ship, but it for the most part remained empty.
Out of habit, Vegeta tapped the button on his Scouter and performed a quick sweep of the room ahead, and found that there was only one signature within... And the signature within belonged to a being who's power level was so large, it shut the device off entirely, but not before it spit out the numbers "333,333", which was the Scouter's max level which it could read.
Had he been using one of the older models, it would have exploded in his face. But Vegeta was using a Scouter specifically made for him, and his had a failsafe which prevented that from happening. Too many times had Vegeta 'accidently' done a sweep of the station and had his Scouter explode upon passing over Frieza's power level, and that became his excuse for stalling a purge. Frieza caught on quickly and had his engineers create a Scouter which had this failsafe installed.
If Frieza was the only one in the room, then indeed, Frieza was preparing to take his frustration and anger on the failed assignment out on Vegeta. Frieza was to Vegeta's surprise, not entirely heartless, and often spared him the embarrassment of having Zarbon or Dodoria there to witness his cruelty. Well that, and during the few times Frieza actually did pass some knowledge onto Vegeta, he requested Vegeta to show him some fighting techniques he used on the purge so he may offer criticism. The first few times he did this, Vegeta... Not so accidentally, slaughtered one of Frieza's tactical officers.
Vegeta stepped forward, his steps becoming slower and slower the closer he came to the heavy blast door and the evil lurking within... The evil which made brave warriors' blood freeze with the mere mention of his name, the evil which destroyed entire planets, no - entire galaxies... The only thing which Vegeta truly feared, feared more than anything, more than death itself even...
He stopped infront of the door, and waited for a few seconds.
It was extremely quiet in the hall, save for the occasional beep of one of the consoles, or a door opening in some other part of the ship. Vegeta couldn't hear anything in the room infront of him, which made his heart sink even more. He gulped before activating the door's control panel.
With a simple -beep-, Vegeta watched as the heavy blast door's mechanisms whirred and spun to life, the door sliding open with a metallic squeal.
The room inside was entirely dark. The lights were off. Vegeta had seen what the room looked like with the lights on, and it was a rather huge room, with columns of computer consoles and viewing screens lining the walls for Frieza's tacticians to use.
It wasn't ALL dark though, because at the far end of the room, opposite to that of the door, was a large round window which allowed those in the room to peer out to the vast black emptiness of space. Some light peered in through this window, and it illuminated a figure sitting in a floating throne, it's back to the door staring out into the lonely void.
Light poured in from the hall behind him as he bravely stepped in, and immediately the door slid closed behind him, and he heard a low pitched -beep- which told him that the door was now locked. Once the door closed and the light it allowed into the room gone, the room was that much darker, but Vegeta was a Saiyan, and Saiyan's had a natural night vision.
Vegeta walked through the large room, walking closer to the figure sitting in the floating throne who had not paid any mind to his presence, but Vegeta knew that it knew he was there.
Each step he took further into the darkness, the more he felt nauseous. Finally he stepped into the light the window allowed into the room, and he kneeled in the spot he was in, his head facing the metallic floor.
A small humming was heard in the room which was emitted from the mechanical chair that it's occupant used to transport himself around, not out of laziness, but because he found things such as walking below him.
Silence quickly set in, along with tension that could be cut with a knife, and Vegeta shut his eyes as he waited. Seconds passed by like hours and his anxiety grew greater and greater, he just wished that Frieza would get on with this... Of all the things he hated, he hated it most when Frieza chose to take his time with the torture.
"Saiyan..." Frieza's calm voice echoed throughout the room. "You know why you are here..."
Frieza's chair turned to allow him to face the kneeling prince before him, and Frieza had an expressionless look on his face. The voice made Vegeta feel like he wanted to throw up, but he forced himself to show no fear, no matter how much he wanted to fall and begin sobbing. But he wouldn't do that, he was Vegeta - Prince of all Saiyans... He had to be strong.
"You may rise..."
Vegeta's eyes opened and he stood slowly up, taking in the sight before him.
Making sure he was careful not to look Frieza in the eyes, he looked at the ground. If he were to look Frieza in the eyes, he knew he would surely receive a swift slap to the face. He was not to look into Frieza's eyes unless he was speaking to him, but he was pretty sure he knew what they looked like this very moment - A deep, cold look glimmered over with hatred and disappointment.
"Now Vegeta... Tell me yourself why you are here." Frieza spoke in mock politeness and slowly, Vegeta's eyes lifted off the ground to meet Frieza's, and the look he was giving the prince was making his blood run cold.
"I f-failed my assignment to purge the Korundians from their home planet..." He tried his best to keep his voice steady "And I failed to report the cause of this failure."
Frieza's response was quick. "And why, may I ask, did you fail this assignment? If I do remember correctly... And my memory serves me well..." Frieza looked down at one of the small screens on the arm rest of his chair as he tapped a button and after a low beep he looked up back into Vegeta's eyes "The Korundians' biggest power level on the planet was only sitting at a petty 5000... What is your excuse?"
Frieza's tone was polite and calm, but Vegeta had grown to pick up on the sinister undertones that the icy tyrant usually had whilst talking and he was picking up on those now, and from the sound of it, Frieza was trying his best to maintain his patience and not strangle Vegeta where he stood.
With that in mind, he tried to pick his next few words carefully.
"We ran into some resistance not from this high power level, or even on the planet, but from a Korundian ship in space... Our pods were no match it's fire power and we were forced to turn back, or else our pods would have been destroyed."
Frieza's expressionless look dropped slightly into that of one of anger for a split second and then it returned back to the look it wore before, and Vegeta could tell his patience was now on a slight thread.
It wouldn't be long now.
"And why were your pods' shields not enough to deflect such fire power... Need I remind you that the shields on Planet Trade craft are the most advanced in the galaxy...?"
Vegeta knew what response he would receive before he even answered.
"I don't know-" A loud smack echoed across the room, followed by a grunt of pain from Vegeta.
"Of course you don't KNOW." Frieza stepped off his chair, the calm look he previously had now being replaced by one of annoyance and anger, the cold look in his eyes glassing over with that colder than the void of space itself. "You are such a pathetic failure that you couldn't even LAND YOUR POD on the planet!"
Vegeta tried to stand off the floor but was met by Frieza's foot stomping down hard on his back, causing Vegeta to scream with what little air that wasn't knocked from his lungs.
"The pod you and your fellow pathetic filthy monkeys used were the latest version, and were equipped with a new shield... And you're trying to sit here and tell me that they weren't enough? Fool..." Frieza launched a small purple ball of energy into Vegeta's back, tearing a hole in his armor and burning his flesh, and the Saiyan let lose another scream of pain.
"What is more likely is that you didn't even go to the planet at all... Maybe you tried to escape... Hm? Did you try to escape little monkey?" Frieza lifted his hand and a dark purple aura of energy surrounded Vegeta's body and lifted him off the ground.
"Stand up monkey, stand up and look at me while I'm talking to you." Vegeta did his best to stand, gritting his teeth through the horrible burning pain he felt on his back as he looked into Frieza's terrible gaze.
The purple aura dissipated and Vegeta felt the weight of his body come back, and in his weakened state he had trouble standing, but he knew if he gave in and fell again it would just be a greater beating than the one currently set in motion.
"I have given you everything... I have risen you like a son, given you a place, a belonging in the galaxy and still you bring me FAILURE!" Frieza's fist pounded into Vegeta's chin, knocking him up into the air, and Frieza phased up ahead him, pounding his elbow into Vegeta's stomach, blasting him back down into the hard metal floor.
But still, he offered no resistance - Why resist what is inevitable? Compared to Frieza Vegeta was but a mere roach in the wake of a giant, so like a good roach he allowed the giant foot to come crashing down on him.
Already, he felt his power leaving his body as he was beaten further and further by Frieza.
"Just... Keep... Going... Fool..." he thought to himself. "Make me stronger..."
Frieza had no intention of stopping as he gripped Vegeta in a purple aura once more, only this time smacking him hard into a console hanging on the wall, destroying the screen. Like a ragdoll, he pulled Vegeta up into the air again and brought him crashing down into the floor. And then he did it again, and again, and again, until Vegeta was on the verge of passing out.
Using his Scouter, Frieza checked Vegeta's powerlevel and saw it had dipped down to a mere 132.
"Hm." He chuckled. "A power level of 132. Vegeta you must be losing your touch." Frieza launched another purple ball of energy into Vegeta's back, emitting yet another blood curdling scream from the prince, and the power level reading updated to read 86.
Vegeta now lay on the ground, panting heavily, his body twitching involuntarily as he felt the waves of pain and heat washing over him like a wild tsunami, but he welcomed this pain - this pain brought him closer to his death, closer to the end of this torment. It was times like this that he found himself not caring about survival, not caring about living to avenge his race - He just wanted to die.
Again, Frieza raised his hand and allowed a purple ball of energy to gather in his hand.
"Monkey... The next time I send you on a task..." The ball began to grow slightly "You obey and do it no matter what." He then threw the ball at Vegeta, causing a small purple explosion.
Vegeta now was silent, as he fell out of consciousness.
Frieza updated the reading, and saw it had dipped to a low readingo f 16.
That was more than enough, but truth be told Frieza wanted to keep on going... He was VERY upset at Vegeta for his failure in this task. Cooler recently had set his sights on that planet, and Frieza wanted to capture it before Cooler did, but now that Vegeta and his roaming band of idiots had gone and screwed that up, he had no doubt in his mind that Cooler had already sent someone more qualified for the job and had already captured the planet. Nothing made him angrier than Cooler upstaging him. Nothing.
So that is why he took his time wandering back to his chair, and he dusted himself off before sitting back down on his throne, his normal stoic expression returning. He pressed a button on his throne and heard a beep followed by static.
"Yes Lord Frieza? How may I help?" Zarbon's voice came over the com.
"Zarbon, send for a medical team to come retrieve this... Cretin. And inform the tactical officers to return to their posts on the command deck, and also send a repair crew here to fix this console. I'm going to retire to my chambers, so also send Dodoria here to oversee the officers here in the command deck."
"Yes sir Lord Frieza." Zarbon's reply came immediately.
Vegeta found himself awakening to the familiar feeling of the healing tank fluids entering each of the wounds in his body and numbing and healing them. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, and he hated feeling it, but with each wound that was healed, the more power he felt returning, along with power greater than the power he possessed prior to healing.
Vegeta shook his head as he fully awoke, and he allowed himself to for the moment, relax.
He had made it through yet another one of Frieza's merciless beatings, and in doing so, he now felt new power coursing through his veins... The pain he felt before slowly fading, but the wounds healing over into new scars which decorate his body along with the many other scars it held. Permanent reminders.
Permanent reminders that no matter how strong he became, and no matter if he ever was free of Frieza, he would still bear the markings of his time spent as a slave...
And he had decided days ago, that his time spent as a slave was going to be coming to an end extremely soon. Idly, he did a scan through the station and felt that Raditz's power level was no longer on the station, which meant that Raditz had left for Earth to go find Kakarot. Probably already was there seeing as to how the reading on the screen next to his tank said it was a day after he was inserted.
Once he had another Saiyan in his ranks, he was going to leave the station before Freiza even knew what had happened. And then - then he was going to find a distant planet in the far off corners of the galaxy and he was going to take the last of the Sayians and he was going to train - train until he ascended and became the legendary Super Saiyan warrior... Then... With his Saiyans at his side, he would return.
He would return to exact his revenge.
Power Levels(because why not)-
Vegeta(Pre-beating): 10,000
Vegeta(Healing): 11,350
Vegeta(Healed): 13,500
So there ya go, after healing, due to his Zenkai Vegeta will have the power level he has when arriving to Earth. :)
I hope I didn't put too much unrelated information into this story, it was kinda hard to keep from making it an info dump. There's just so much potential stories to be told through Vegeta's time as a slave working for Frieza, and so much potential lore building to be done based around Frieza I couldn't resist throwing some extra stuff in.
Please review and tell me what you think! I think this turned out alot greater than my first Dragon Ball story.
I wrote this taking inspiration from a story called 'Shades of Grey'. You should look it up sometime.
Until next time :)
-Twisted