Warning: Tanga, I am your father.

Giving In is Giving Up

Chapter 2: Princess

by hmfan24

"Kill me," shouted the prince at the young girl as a taunt rather than a plea. She had been fighting against him for hours on a deserted planet light years away from her home. The planet was dark and stormy all the time and she was afraid of storms. The ground was red and the clouds were black with flashes of white lightning that were strong enough to cause fires and earthquakes on the crimson soil. No place was safe. This terrain was a thousand times worse than the wasteland Master Piccolo had left her at.

The command was but a mere derision to her dignity as even with his guard down, she hadn't even managed to land a scratch on him. Tears flew from her eyes and she collapsed from lack of energy and will. What was she doing? She was alone and scared and had no face to even look at but the man that could kill her at any moment. This situation was torture compared to what she had originally expected. It never occurred to her that the alien would kidnap her and take her to another planet. All that training didn't help at all. She was powerless.

Why was he so convinced that this girl was his daughter anyway? Perhaps it had been desperation to find someone related to him through blood, or the longing he had for her mother. This situation certainly wouldn't bring them together in a positive sense, but he excused that urge from his mind countless of times. He literally had to brainwash himself to get rid of the withdrawal symptoms after their week long 'sex-capade' on Frieza's ship.

Once Freiza became conscious of her existence, he'd see to her extermination. Vegeta could not allow that. The child was his property, and no one would simply take anything that belonged to him - not even Freiza. If he were able to harness the child's capabilities for his own, he'd be more powerful than he was when he was with Nappa. Of course she was resistant now, but she'd surely give in later on down the road.

Tanga yelled, taking his laughter as an insult, "I want to go home! Let me go home!" She fired another Masenko towards him. She had gone days without much food or water before, but with this environment, she was steadily draining.

"Tell me, Tanga, have you ever wanted to be a princess?" he inquired mockingly, but was semi-curious about her true feelings towards the title. She was one - an illegitimate one - however a princess nonetheless as far as he was concerned.

She looked at him like the word "princess" was foreign, "I'm a Saiyan and Saiyans aren't princesses. They're warriors!" She clenched her fist and smirked.

He smirked back, feeling a jolt from realizing the resemblance to himself at that age. How nostalgic. The only reason he was fond of his title was because it stood his overwhelming power over the entire planet. He was the prodigy of the millennium and anticipated Super Saiyan. And if trained right, this hybrid might just be able to reach his level one day, "You are right and wrong at the same time. I am the prince of the warrior race known as the Saiyans."

She looked at him skeptically. Tanga didn't really think that Vegeta would be the type to lie to her since lying was for people who had no control, yet here he was claiming to be the prince. That couldn't be it. "No...why would warriors need a prince?" she asked the "clearly" stupid man.

He narrowed his eyes, "So they can have a leader."

"Liar!"

His eyebrow twitched, "What?" Of course he wasn't lying.

Just then, she gasped, tears started streaming down her face as she shot a beam strong enough to destroy the nearby mountain and screamed in anger. It exploded and crumbled at an instant. She then charged off, leaving Vegeta confused until she orbited the small planet back around to him, shooting dozens of ki blasts towards him, "NO NO NO NO NO!"

"What!" he was more than agitated now. Vegeta landed on the ground and watched her tantrum in awe. Her power had doubled with whatever emotions had risen within her.

"Mom said my dad was a prince. Mom's not a Saiyan but I am and Gohan said that the only way I can be one is that my dad has to be a Saiyan which means my dad is a prince and a Saiyan and..." She paused and destroyed another mountain. "Either she's lying or you're lying! Which one is it?"

He smirked, "I'm not lying and she's not lying. I am Vegeta - Prince of all Saiyans." So that's what it was. How impressive for the 5 year old to put together such logic while grown men like Kakarot probably wouldn't figure it out for years. "You're very smart, Princess."

Tanga's eyes were now bloodshot. She was out of power, and collapsed on the rough, sandy surface of the planet, "Leave me here to die."

What a melodramatic little girl. So what? Her father's evil. He could be dead like his own father was although that's probably what she had wanted. Weren't most girls supposed to celebrate the title of Princess? Vegeta had had suitors since he was a baby with girls, literally killing to be a princess. And here she was born into the title. He was planning on using the announcement to coax her into joining him, yet the plan had completely backfired. He stomped over and picked her up by the collar again, throwing her into one of the space pods before setting the coordinates and getting into his own pod.

Maybe parenthood wasn't for him. He then flashed back to the readings on his scouter as she soared through the stormy skies of the deserted planet without fear and grinned to himself. Then again, maybe it would work out for him in long run. To harness that power would be interesting indeed.

His smug smile didn't last long until he realized how long it's been since they had had water and food. The pods were low on supply and they were far away from headquarters. He turned on the intercom, "Tanga! When was the last time you've eaten or had water?" Of course he got no answer, but he couldn't have the girl dying from dehydration, "Answer me!" he demanded her hasty response.

"I didn't eat before the fight on Earth, but the spaceship gave me some water today," she said in between sniffs, "I'm fine. Leave me alone. It's not like you care anyway."

Her pod had water solution? Maybe it was just his own that was low on supplies. He hadn't realized his weakened state until now as he dozed off into a light unconsciousness on their way to their destination. Where they were going should have water.

Tanga was an angry child. She spent most of her life resenting someone or something - her self was no exception. Peering over at her new found father, she held hatred and disgust in her throat. This man wasn't cool at all. Sure, he was probably the strongest guy in the universe being a Saiyan and all, but he was still a jerk. As he leaned over the riverbank to soak up water, she felt a strong urge to push him into it. "Why are we here?" she asked, looking around at a planet that seemed a whole lot more peaceful than the previous. The only downfall was that every inch of ground and sky was pink, and the ground felt like gelatin... After getting no reply, she walked over to him. "Where are we?" she repeated.

The prince tried to act like he couldn't hear her, but replied after she repeated herself, "I'm not sure," he said, "But this is part of your test. A Saiyan must know how to react in unknown territory," Then promptly returned to drinking the stream.

Not another test. She'd been tested for a whole year. "You know, Vegeta," she began and watched him cringe at her addressing him so casually. She smirked. Most adults didn't appreciate being called by their first name, she noted, and it'd be a cold day in HFIL before she ever called him "father". Gohan had a habit of calling adults "Mister" and "Miss", but why waste the breath for the extra word? She sat down, dipping her feet upstream from him. She she became quite entertained from watching the water slowly change to a dark shade of pink. He sat up, wiping his mouth. "I was wondering: what would you want with a weakling like me?" she went on, satisfied by her taste of control.

That imp purposely interrupted his drinking session. "Don't do that!" he commanded. She smirked. He continued, frustrated, "I have my reasons."

She stroked her tail, "Why can't you tell me? You're probably never gonna let me go home again," she said, gesticulating towards the sky. Her eyes watered a bit, but she wiped them before he could see even the faintest glimmer of tears.

"You're a Saiyan. All the others are dead. You're going to help me defeat their killer," he rinsed his face and sat back. He studied the tail that she held in her hands. Then he found himself rubbing the area where his tail once was for the tenth time that day. That short, chubby man came out of nowhere with his sword and chopped it right off. If he mourned anything, it was his tail rather than his former comrade. Letting out a sigh, he got up and looked around. Lifeforms were approaching.

The girl stood up as well and faced the direction of the mob that was charging towards them. "W-What are these things?" Tanga asked, seeing the faceless blobs of poisonous, purple enemies steadily approach them. She got into a fighting stance. Her father stood silent with his arms crossed as he fiddled with the device on his eye. "Tell me!" she shrieked, pointing up at him, "You brought me here. What are these things?"

Vegeta floated into the air without saying a word and watched from above. "You're a threat to them," he informed her, "consider this the first level of your test."

A threat? The familiarity of that address made something in her cringe, yet the situation itself had never happened to her before. She felt fear. It wasn't so much the quality of their combined strength as it was the number. Soon, that wasn't much to worry about as they all began lumping together and growing in size to form one giant blob of black-blue. The smell was intolerable and the fumes smelled deadly. This felt like a scene from a surreal nightmare rather than the reality that looked her dead in the eye. She looked up at Vegeta then back to the mob several times before regaining the ability to form words with her mouth, "Get back!" she told the former mob of blobs.

"Oh, you think that'll work? It's either fight or flight, princess, and I doubt you'll have a chance to escape these retched beings!" he yelled down to the helpless looking whelp that was his spawn. If she had any ounce of his blood in her, he'd be able to make a cold-blooded kill with hot sweat of the thrill. Or so he thought. He watched her back up, nearly falling back into the river before she finally decided to prepare some sort of beam from her palms. Finally! He peered further into the scene like a sport's spectator observing the true climax of a game.

Though looking deeper into her eyes from the angle he was, he did begin to see himself in her. Although what he saw wasn't the choleric killer he'd become and had been seeking in her, yet the weak-minded child bleeding innocence from her eyes that he had before - a self-portrait he tried so hard to suppress. This was quite an unsettling picture as he had forgotten that feeling of helplessness from being pit against an enemy who otherwise he wouldn't bother. All for a test of strength yet a destruction of the soul - his soul - which was sparking only to ignite self-hatred of what he once was. He had changed of course. For the better. But seeing him spawn something in the girl that would turn out to kill whatever innocence was behind her eyes made something in his stomach feel ridden with disease. "Kill it," he wanted to shout, but couldn't over the echoing of the command he once received from one of Frieza's men.

Now the girl was in imminent danger. She would be badly poisoned within meters of the threat if she didn't act at that moment. The threat was engulfing the sky like a tsunami, darkening the ground she stood on and shaking it with its roar. Then she remembered the hot beam that was charging in her hands. Yet before she could fire it, Vegeta fired a small ki blast that was strong enough to disintegrate the monster. She let go of the ball of energy she was charging and let it burn out for miles past the horizon. Looking up to her 'savior', she frowned, "Hey...what'd you do that for?" she said weakly.

"You idiot!" he said, landing with a large thud on the ground below him. "That thing could've poisoned you if you didn't kill it at that exact moment. Don't hesitate and if you ever do, at least think about your plan!" That was his excuse for protecting the girl. He shuddered. Never had he had to protect someone in his life.

She crossed her arms. "Sorrrr-ry," she retorted sarcastically, "I guess I've already gotten so used to your disgusting smell that I didn't even notice the difference."

Wise crack, but not wise at all if it was directed at him. Still, he snorted with a smirk. "That was fear in your eyes," he noted with a notion of taunt on his tongue.

"N-No," she denied, "When? I don't think that thing had a lot of power. Even when it started combining like that." She shuddered. Fear wasn't even in her vernacular. Though the moment itself was thrilling.

"Hm..." he said while examining her face by leaning forward to be on eye-level with her, "have you even killed an intelligent life form before on that dreadful planet?" He said this with a smirk, being sure of the answer.

The girl lowered her head to avert her gaze to the ground. She didn't want to answer the question even if it was out of spite to prove him wrong of his assumptions. Gulping down her pride, she nodded, but did her best to block the incident from her mind.

Vegeta then tripped on whatever lecture he intended on giving. The Earth was a peaceful planet wasn't it? And this girl was not malevolent. She may have had a temper, but he didn't sense much ill intentions from her. "Who?" he asked, "Who made you do it?" Saiyans killed by nature, but if that were the case for his offspring, the blob would've died at her own hands. Not to mention the Earth would've been vacant by the time he arrived.

"I did."

His eyes widened a bit before narrowing in suspicion. "What? So you're telling me that you, an Earthling, had the nerve to kill someone."

"It was because I lose control when I'm provoked," she said, staring off blankly into the purple mist that was being pushed by the wind. Those words must have been someone else's. "Mom does, too, but it's different for me because my anger triggers my ki energy to create a force field that destroys almost everything. I don't belong on that planet anyway, so maybe it's a good thing you took me away."

Something in the pit of the man's stomach sank. Why let the tailless monkeys treat her like a monster when she could simply destroy them all? "If they provoke you then you have the right to seek vengeance," he stated although when he was young, that anger was encouraged. That anger was what made him a true Saiyan.

"No!" she yelled as she kicked up the pink dirt to reveal magenta mud, "I'm not evil like you! I like humans...they just don't like me, and so it's not their fault," she stopped to sob and turned to hide her face from the one man she knew without a doubt would judge her for every tear she leaked. Things like emotions didn't fare well with her. Anger was so much easier to express as she usually used it to hide behind. She felt his foot against her back then force her into the river she was standing over.

There was no resistance. "Weakling! If you don't want your anger to control you then don't let it! Only you have the power to control what angers you. If it's those weak beings that affect how you act, then that makes you weak, doesn't it?" He lifted her up by the tail after getting no response.

"No...I'm strong," she breathed.

He smirked. If he heard what he thought he heard, then that meant there was some of him in her. "What was that?"

"Don't call me weak, you idiot!" she said, spitting water on his collar. "I can't be weak! I'm a Saiyan!"

Too much of him. He let her go. So much of him that he felt like someone other than himself. He felt like Frieza. "Hm," he walked away, shaking the feeling from himself. Those exact words came out of his mouth at some point in his life. He was sure of it. But what he said this time to the girl, wasn't meant to control her like Frieza had. They were meant to invigorate her with power. But why? Didn't he want to control her? That was the point of this whole exhibition. This was a certainly a conflict. While he wanted to bring out the uninhibited power that was lying dormant inside her beneath her foolish beliefs in controlling her anger, he kept seeing the frail yet hard-headed boy he once was that was driven by his pride in any direction that presented itself as a challenge - until he hit a more powerful wall. He was this girl's powerful wall, but in the end he'd only make her stronger.

Tanga jumped, pushing her father to the side, "Get down!" The beam that would've shot him was deflected by a swift swipe of her arm. "You idiot," she shouted. Her steaming arm dropped limp to her side, "I can't believe you didn't see that coming!"

How heroic.

He got up to dust himself off. There he went, being out of character and not paying attention to his surroundings. He grinned at the swarm of giant purple ogres that surrounded them. Despite their size, their power levels gave them the appearance of ants. The beam the girl deflected wouldn't have even scratched him. "Do you consciously note every fly that comes your way?" he asked.

"No..." she said as she rubbed her sore arm, "Do you want me to kill these guys, too? Why can't we just leave?"

"This is part of your training!"

"Why should I train with you!" she shouted until she noticed a large boulder headed their way. She blasted it, aiming out the corner of her eye. The monsters stopped in their tracks. "This is boring," she continued, "they can't even put up a fair fight. How am I supposed to become stronger if you keep giving me these weak enemies?"

Vegeta couldn't help but smile at her thirst for a true challenge although there was no telling what exactly they'd encounter on Namek. One step out of time is how he'd have to take it if he planned on keeping his future minion. "With every enemy you defeat, you gain the experience to defeat stronger enemies. Now, hurry it up. Although they are weak, their number is enough to kill you if you don't stay quick on your feet."

She turned to them and built up a ball of light in the palms of her hands once more. Only this time, shooting a small one. The ogre vaporized into thin air. She shot another one then another one until killing them felt like flies. It seemed she had an endless reserve of ki that emitted bursts one after another. Then, suddenly, from underground, two giant hands came up and grabbed her. Where did this one come from? It had her in the palm of his hands, crushing her and her ability to form blasts. This one was more powerful than all of the monsters combined. This one was even more powerful than she was. Where she was, was dark and painful and she wasn't able to make a sound until through the cracks of its fingers, she saw a bright light.

hmfan24: Promise some BV romance for next chapter which might be posted by the weekend. Sorry for updating Abducted!, I decided to delete the epilogue I posted. I figure I'd update the sequel to make up for the inconvenience. This story is doing surprisingly well! Usually OCs don't do that well.

Thank you for reading and reviewing. Your suggestions are appreciated.