A/N So, I lied. The original author had two chapters posted, not one. A big thanks to her for pointing that out to me. The first half of this chapter is hers, the second (Vegeta's P.O.V.) is where my writing begins. I'm trying to keep her style, but I apologize for anything that seems out of place writing-wise.
In other news, I already have a good portion of the next chapter written. Hopefully it'll be a speedy update. :)
Trunks lazily rolled out of bed and stood on shaky legs. He rubbed at his blue eyes as he made his way over to the bathroom that was connected to his room on the spaceship. He flipped on the bright light and winced as it reflected painfully off the pristine white that bathed everything in the small wash closet. He turned the water on in the shower and, after stripping out of his boxers, gratefully entered the hot jet of water. He stood under the showerhead, letting his violet hair cling to his forehead as his mind filled with thoughts.
He didn't want a new concubine. They were always so much trouble. Not to mention the fact that he let them step all over him. Within a month those cunning bitches always managed to exploit his biggest weakness, extreme shyness to the opposite sex, and twist him to get whatever they wanted. Though feeling guilty during their eventual demise, Trunks was thankful his father's low tolerance for seeing the same things continuously usually ended the concubines' reigns.
And now he was rocketing through space with his father in their spaceship to a concubine academy to purchase him a new toy. He felt the bile rise in his throat and sighed heavily. He tried explaining to King Vegeta over and over again that he simply did not want a glorified whore to play with. The king, of course, had brushed off his complaints telling him that if he did not use the women, his sexual frustration would hinder his fighting prowess. Trunks always shut up when the conversation turned down that road. He wasn't about to be the one to admit to the king that his son was a twenty-three-year old virgin and the very thought of sex terrified him. It wasn't the actual act that scared him; it was the risk of creating a child. His life had not been easy by any stretch of the word and he refused to submit another being to his lifestyle.
He snorted at that thought; his lifestyle. Being in a war with the most feared being in the universe was certainly horrific on a kid growing up in the Saiyan Empire, much less the heir to the throne. After the defeat of his brother at the hands of Bardock, a low class warrior whose crew was murdered by the deceased tyrant, Cooler lashed back with a power no one would have guessed he had. Not long after Bardock's warning of Frieza's treachery and proceeding battle, Cooler rallied what forces would still follow him and attacked. The Saiyans were able to counter quickly, encouraged by Bardock's ascension to the legendary Super Saiyan during his battle with Frieza. Though they were now engaged in a vicious war, Trunks shuddered to think what would have happened to his people had they brushed Bardock's accusations aside.
And then there was the constant ridicule Trunks had to face being the product of an Earthling and not of full Saiyan blood. The only reason he was prince was because of the fact that Vegeta's Saiyan wife had been unable to bear him even a single child before she fell in battle some twenty or more years back. It was common Saiyan practice not to remarry and so that left Trunks as the only legitimate option.
He had a younger sister, Bra, who came from the same coupling he had, but she had no interest in politics at the age of sixteen. She was more like their mother, Bulma, and looked exactly like the blue-haired woman as well. She could fight; she just preferred not to put her pretty little face in danger. Trunks chuckled to himself as he climbed out of the shower and dried off. She certainly was a handful.
He was really the only option the Saiyan race had.
A loud banging on his bedroom door woke him from his thoughts. He rushed to his room and managed to slip on a pair of boxers before a blue-headed fury barged through the door.
"Bra!" he exclaimed, chastising his sister's lack of personal privacy.
"Oh, shut up," she responded haughtily. "You're keeping Father waiting."
Bra rolled her eyes as she sauntered across the room to examine herself in a full-length mirror hanging on the wall.
"Damn," he mumbled, digging through the piles of discarded clothing on the floor to find his black spandex shorts. Missing training sessions was a huge no-no in the king's rule book. Even the few minutes he was currently running late by were sure to earn him a regeneration tank-worthy beating.
"What do you want?" he asked his sister gruffly as he tugged on his shoes. He glanced at where she stood posing and pulling on her skin-tight clothing. He knew there was a motive to her lingering. Faintly, he noted how she resembled many of the royal court's concubines that roamed the palace halls of the left wing.
She sighed a long, heavy sigh as she pulled her thin fingers through her hair. "Oh, nothing..."
He felt his skin crawl at her airy tone. She wanted something, all right.
"Just," she continued, "if you get a new toy, get one I can play with as well."
He froze as she turned to him, a dangerous glint in her eyes. She saw his horrified expression and scoffed.
"Not like that," she clarified, putting a downward inflection on the last word. "Get one I can dress up, talk to."
"You mean like your own, life-sized doll," he responded flatly. He pulled his laces tight and stood. That was classic Bra; manipulation to have some fun.
"Yeah," she said eagerly, not catching his disdainful tone or simply not caring, he wasn't sure which. "Finally, you get it!"
She followed him out of his small room on the ship. Normally, she would've been left on the planet but their father wasn't comfortable leaving her behind with all the unrest that had started between the Saiyan people. The vain girl was reluctant to leave her closets and jewels at first, but a promise from Vegeta to stop at Greydon Station, a huge shopping fortress, quickly changed her mind. So now Trunks was stuck with her on the month-long trip to and back from the academy.
"So, you'll do it, won't you?" she asked as they stopped at the steel doors of the training facility.
"Fine," he sighed, only agreeing to get her off his back. Vegeta would be angry enough at him for keeping him waiting this long. He didn't need and irate Saiyan princess making his life difficult as well.
"Yay!" Bra exclaimed, clapping her hands together as she jumped up and down in the hall. Trunks placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to stop the show from continuing. The guards standing in the hall were staring intently. He gave her a look and, scared at his sudden roughness, she took her leave. As soon as she was safely on her way back to her room, Trunks braced himself and turned back towards the door. Putting on a stoic expression, he entered the room to face his father.
Vegeta didn't consider himself an arrogant man in any sense of the word. He was proud, sure; proud of his people, proud of himself. Perhaps that's why it bothered him so much when Bardock was able to ascend so easily to claim what was to be his, Vegeta's, rightful legacy. In the brief moments alone he'd had with his father, the previous king, growing up under Frieza's rule as a young boy, Vegeta had been told continuously that he was destined to be the one to rise and lead his people as the legendary Super Saiyan warrior that had not been seen for a thousand years. Hewas the one who was supposed to ascend. It was foretold to be his destiny, not the destiny of that third-class trash now hailed as a hero for taking down the old tyrant and liberating the Saiyan people.
He also supposed that, in some twisted way, he should be thankful to Bardock. Without the warrior or his equally inept son Kakarot, Vegeta mused that he himself might not have been able to ascend as well. Yes, he was now a warrior of legend. Thanks to the constant burning desire to be better than Bardock and the battle the now-king had shared with Kakarot on Earth.
Vegeta paused in his angry pacing in the spaceship's training room as he thought back on the battle. Nearly twenty-plus years ago, when his father had still been alive, Vegeta had traveled to the dismal mud ball planet of Earth with a warrior by the name of Raditz to retrieve Kakarot—Bardock's son and Raditz's younger brother who had been sent to the planet to purge it when he was only a few days old. It should have been no problem for the Saiyan infant but, when they arrived, they found the planet perfectly happy and intact.
In his anger at the traitor, Vegeta had flown off to challenge Kakarot who met him easily, calling himself Goku and claiming to be the Earth's protector. Just before they were about to engage in battle, Raditz stepped in and begged his then-prince to show the low-class warrior's baby brother a little mercy. Disgusted with his show of affection, Vegeta easily put Raditz down for the count. He always had been a weakling.
Then it was Kakarot's turn. Their battle was vicious. Vegeta hadn't had an opponent who could challenge him like that in quite some time but he was confident he would win in the end. After all, he was the prince of all Saiyans. Surely that meant he was ultimately stronger than those he ruled over. But Kakarot didn't consider himself to be under anyone's rule but his own. He was, in every aspect, a very different adversary than Vegeta had ever known.
Which may have been why he was defeated. Though, Vegeta strongly maintained, he would have won if the traitor's Halfling son and bald, pathetic friend hadn't stepped in. Yes, if the trio hadn't existed to thwart him, he would have been the undisputed victor. He was certain.
Instead, barely clinging to life, Vegeta had been allowed to live. The Earthlings had even taken him in and healed him. He would have gotten away a lot sooner if his pod hadn't been destroyed by the Halfling brat during his Oozaru transformation, but he was forced to submit to a blue-haired witch's demands until her scientist father built him a spaceship he and Raditz, who had also managed to prolong his pitiable life, could return home in.
Three years later, return he did. Vegeta came back with the witch who was now ripe with his first child, without Kakarot, and to find his father dead (murdered by assassins) and he the new king. He led his people to believe that the woman was simply a spoil of war, a concubine. In truth, he had fallen in love with her and she with him, but he would surely appear weak if that fact were known. Though their relationship wasn't exactly romantic, he felt a strong bond to the woman and couldn't bear to leave her on Earth, unprotected by him.
That bond was made all the stronger by the fact that the woman Bulma was carrying his child. His wife had died somewhere near four years before he traveled to Earth. She had been defeated in the war with Cooler and left Vegeta childless. It was an excepted Saiyan principle that marriage was for life, a contract not broken after death. It would've been sacrilegious to marry again—even if the purpose was to produce a pure-blooded heir. Though his people were still angry and restless over having a Halfling prince, it was the only option for Vegeta. He was not about to name some other Saiyan, one not of his direct blood, next in line for the throne. He wouldn't hear of it.
Speaking of his heir, the boy had just stepped through the door. Vegeta studied his son with a strange mixture of pride and disgust. His violet hair fell in straight lines around his face. His blue eyes appeared brave and determined, but held a hint of fear in them. At first glance, he was embarrassingly unthreatening. But, as Vegeta had discovered through their rigorous training, his son held an immeasurable amount of power. The only trick was coaxing to the surface of his unimpressive exterior.
"You're late, boy," he growled low in his throat.
Trunks gulped in apprehension. Vegeta lowered himself into an offensive position. It was going to take a lot of hard work and many beatings to transform his Halfling heir into a mighty Saiyan king.
