WARNING: Loooots of blood and gore in this chapter. Also, because I know somebody is going to mention this, the statements made by the characters do not in any way represent my own world view or opinions on subjects. That goes for every chapter both before this one and after.
Chapter 2 - Death or Glory
The battle kicked off almost immediately. To the more casual viewers, the attacks made by the combatants were only able to be traced by the periodic shockwaves that reverberated between the energy shields; to the three other Super-Elites present, including Goku and Vegeta, a relatively sloppy display of combat was shown. Iago had, somehow, obtained a scythe, and was sending a flurry of attacks in the direction of Demado, who was doing what he could to dodge the swipes and try to send attacks of his own past his assailant's long, albeit impractical, defense. Both of them, from what details had been recorded, were relatively young, the Saiyan being 22, and the Neo-Saiyan being 19 (and therefore one of the older Neo-Saiyans in existence); neither of them had spent any time in Frieza's army before he was destroyed, and it showed in their lack of combat skill. That being said, both were showing a great amount of ferocity in the fight, and since the normal viewers didn't have a hope of seeing who was on top at this stage, it still made for a relatively good show.
Eventually, one of them made a mistake: Iago, seeing an opening, wound up for a fraction of a second, then sent a strike diagonally downward towards Demado. However, the Neo-Saiyan, having noticed the slower attack, grabbed for the weapon, found a grip, and hauled it out of its creator's hands, snapping it over one knee; this, however, left him open for a double-footed kick to the face, sending him flying as a streak of gold to the other side of the arena, bouncing off of the energy barrier before righting himself.
"Oh, that was a cheap shot!" Demado called.
"Well, you took your sweet time breaking the scythe!"
"Like I broke that one kid of yours...?"
"Shut up and DIE!" screamed Iago, forming what appeared to be shards of blue-gold ki from his aura, and flinging them in a wide stream towards his opponent, who promptly began twisting around the deadly projectiles, barely avoiding dismemberment several times.
"Cheat!" the Neo-Saiyan cried emphatically, for no good reason other than to piss Iago off. "Hacks! NNNNEEEERRRRR-"
His voice ceased for a split second as the wall of ki blades suddenly became several times more dense, and his form seemingly vanished before they could hit him. Immediately afterward, he reappeared, finishing the word - "-RRRRRRD!" - and grabbing Iago by the head and kneeing him in the temple as hard as he could, cutting off the attack stream and opening up a wound on his opponent. A moment later, Demado dodged backward, barely avoiding a slice from another scythe, which had once again appeared from nowhere. Apparently, that was one of his opponent's tricks. A new melee began, with Iago once again on the offensive; this time, though, Demado responded in kind, deliberately using his hands to redirect the path of many of the blows that would otherwise have been made, and eventually vaulting himself over a downward slash to fling himself at his opponent, forcing him to drop the scythe to defend against the next several punches.
"You suck at this, sissy!" Demado yelled, battering his fists repeatedly against Iago's forearms.
"Go... eat... a dick!" came the response, a powerful kiai once again throwing Demado away, upwards this time, though a kiai in the opposite direction stopped his momentum before he could hit the barrier.
"I bet you eat lots of them, you person! And on that note, how exactly did you have children, anyway? You and your friend are both guys..."
"Why does that matter to you, freak?!"
"Whoah, look out guys, we've got someone who thinks she's hot shit over here!"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" Iago screamed, launching himself upward at Demado's frame, but finding himself caught by the forearms as the smaller fighter leaned in and grinned maniacally. "Yeraguuuurl, mate," he leered, before flinging his opponent downward and kicking repeatedly at his face, forcing the Saiyan to retreat further towards the ground with his face covered. When he uncovered it, he saw the Neo-Saiyan's relatively small frame silhouetted behind a gathered ball of bright red energy.
"Ha HA! Now you'll face the wraith of my special attack!" Demado cried. "It's all going to kick off for your face now!"
"The hell are you saying?" Iago replied in a confused manner, preparing his own energy beam, a pastel blue edged with the yellow of his Super Saiyan form, to counteract that of his opponent. "Just- stop- talking!"
"No! Now prepare yourself for my EXTREME IMPLOSION BOMB, bitch!"
With that, and one last "HYAAAAH!", Demado flung his attack downward, and Iago, seeing no other choice, fired his attack then and there, emitting a cry of hatred. Finally, in this one last struggle, he could obliterate the killer of his children, and-
The beam tore through the energy ball like it wasn't there. Or rather, like it held only minor substance. The Saiyan cut off the attack, only to find that, after everything had dispersed a second later, Demado simply wasn't there.
"What the-"
"Made you look."
Iago was promptly enveloped in a wide, searing stream of orange-gold energy, fired from behind him by his enemy for the hour. It had been a trick all along - the "Extreme Implosion Bomb" really was insubstantial, or close enough that it made no practical difference to Demado's energy levels; and whilst Iago had been distracted by what he believed to be a major threat, his opponent had snuck behind him, thus leading to the current scene. After several seconds of sustained fire, Demado finished his attack, leaving a large gash in the ground and a slowly-fading dust screen covering the view. Simply for noise, though, it became obvious to Demado that his target hadn't yet been killed; and sure enough, there stood Iago, having reflexively boosted the amount of energy he was accessing in order to survive the foul play made by his opponent.
"Now who's the cheat?" he asked, removing his longcoat and throwing it to one side of the arena for safety.
"You are, for having energy knives or whatever."
"Not my fault I can mould my ki like that and you can't."
"Yes it is! Because I say it is!"
"What logic is that?! Do you try to annoy all of your opponents like this, or am I a special case?"
"Oh, you're definitely 'special', alright..." he stated, apparently not sensing the irony in that statement. Then, after a pause: "Y'know, because you're a massive faggot."
"ENOUGH ABOUT MY SEXUALITY ALREADY!" Iago yelled frustratedly, sending another stream of ki shards towards Demado; this time, the Neo-Saiyan began accessing more of his energy, and then simply flew out of the path of the assault. After a few seconds, Iago gave up on that tactic, and instead decided to go all-out, accessing his full strength in a matter of moments; with nothing to dodge, Demado responded in kind, and the two eventually hit their maximum strength.
Huh. They're both pretty strong... Goku thought to himself, perhaps underestimating the two people compared to himself. But it seems like Demado's outmatched by a little bit in this case... though I think I'd rather root for Iago, just because he seems less mean. Goku's sentiment regarding sides was generally shared by most of the Tuffles in the audience, given what they saw as a reprehensible, insane being facing off against someone fighting to instigate appropriately-directed justice; by contrast, the Saiyans of the audience were just glad to see a good fight, and cheered as the two fighters in the arena powered up as far as they could go. Finally, another melee battle began; this time around, Iago definitely held the upper hand, landing several punches on Demado, and eventually forming a pair of sickles to swing at his opponent. The Neo-Saiyan certainly seemed to be outmatched, and one good hit by the weapons his opponent held would almost certainly put him down for good. That being said, he held his own for a good long while, long enough to wear down Iago's patience. With a sudden front flip, the pureblood sent his heel spinning into the halfbreed's skull, throwing Demado to the ground. The sickles reformed themselves into a particularly large scythe, and Iago catapulted himself downward towards Demado, barely failing to strike home, as the Neo-Saiyan caught the blade in both hands just before it buried itself in his skull. Now a battle of pure strength began: with the one pinning the other to the ground through sheer force, whoever could take control over the blade would decide how the battle continued, if they allowed it to continue at all.
So. When are you going to get the knife out?
Aww, do I have to? I didn't want to show him my stabs just yet, we're having so much fun!
You've got a massive scythe aimed at your skull. Our skull, I should say. I think now, if ever, would be a good time to end it.
Blurghrrhrgh... oh fine jeez. Could I exploit one of his weaknesses first, though? I meant to do that before, but...
I assume you mean the badly-set tail bone. Sure, go ahead. It'll probably be fun watching him scream.
Ever so slowly, Demado edged himself downward, moving further between Iago's legs in an apparent effort to move himself out of the scythe blade's path, and drawing the older fighter's attention and ire.
"Where do you think YOU'RE going, bastard?!" Iago yelled, raising a foot to stamp down on Demado's stomach. This, though, was what Demado had been waiting for; with his opponent imbalanced, he abruptly flung his arms over his head, dragging the scythe, and, in turn, the unprepared and kiai-assisted Iago with them, sending both crashing into the ground, and winding Iago from the impact. His position set, Demado flipped over the scythe blade, smashing his feet into Iago's face and further stunning him, then twisted round, grasped his opponent's tail on either side of the kink, then bent it back on itself as hard as possible.
The snap of bone echoed around the arena. Half a second later, so did Iago's high-pitched screech of absolute pain.
Now?
Now.
Finding himself with an effectively incapacitated opponent beneath him, Demado grabbed Iago by the scruff of his shirt, and flung him still-screaming into the air. Almost casually, the Neo-Saiyan followed upward, stopped the Saiyan's flight, then flicked his hand out to form a rough blade of ki around his forearm, bright red in colour, and plunged it into Iago's chest, drawing a gasp from many of them, and cries for blood from the rest. Certainly, the injury drew blood: even if it had only penetrated just above where his ribcage began, Iago was silenced by the shock of it as the puncture began to almost spew the red fluid from itself.
Something seemed off to Goku, though. The blade was... he placed a hand on Vegeta's shoulder, so as to better facilitate telepathic communication.
Vegeta, the energy in that blade... do you sense how concentrated it is?
I do. But how did he do it? He's a Neo-Saiyan, and not an overly focused one at that. Surely he doesn't have that much control over his own ki...
I dunno... maybe we should ask him about it afterwards.
Meanwhile, almost forgetting his broken tail, Iago clasped a hand over the wound, and stared unbelieving at his opponent, who now tossed a ball of orange-red ki in his free hand whilst completely ignoring the other fighter.
"You..." Iago began, not willing to comprehend that he was almost certainly about to die. "You shanked me..."
I'm sick of this prissy fucker. Can I finish him off?
Must yoouu?
I haven't tortured anyone in ages, not the way I want to mutilate birdbrain here. This is the least you could do for me.
Ohhh... well, when you put it like that, I can't just go against your wishes. Go on, then, and make it a good one.
"That's wrong." Demado began, turning to Iago once more, his voice no longer the sing-song taunting from before, instead a harsh monotone. The Neo-Saiyan placed his free hand, no longer playing with the ki ball, on his opponent's shoulder, and was it just him, or did Iago see his opponent's eyes almost harden in cruel anticipation?
"The correct phrasing is, I shanked you repeatedly."
The shoulder placement became a death grip, and suddenly Demado's knife arm was pumping forward and back repeatedly, sending the energy blade into Iago's body again and again and again, and many of the crowd cheered in exultation at the blood being spilled, and blood poured from Iago's mouth as the surely-lethal injuries began adding up, and just as Iago dropped out of Super Saiyan form, Demado began giggling, first quietly, then more and more loudly, drawing the attention of many of the more focused members of the congregation.
Hey, Vegeta... Goku asked uncertainly. Is it just me, or... did Demado's ki spike for a moment?
I wouldn't say it didn't... came the Prince's response.
As the giggle devolved into a full-on homicidal laugh, Demado ceased his repeated stabbing motion, instead opting for a swipe across Iago's throat, sending blood spraying out of his neck, and then another diagonally up his face, disfiguring the unfortunate Saiyan, taking out his eye and his nose. The Neo-Saiyan continued to laugh as he flung his opponent's body towards the ground, then fired a ki blast at it to melt the flesh of Iago's chest, the explosion propelling the body into the floor at high speed; as the blast's area of effect receded, the Neo-Saiyan dropped feet-first into the opened-up chest cavity of his opponent, shattering whatever bones had already evaded damage and crushing most of his remaining vital organs into paste, then fell to his knees in a straddling position and erratically began carving the long-since-deceased Saiyan's upper body into chunks, spraying blood across the ground in an orgy of gore and bone fragments, the deranged laughter continuing all the while, now the main attraction of this grim spectacle.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"
The unfamiliar voice's origin quickly became apparent, as Iago's mate, himself having long since hit his own maximum level of Super Saiyan, charged through the one-way barriers and into the ring, preparing a rather massive attack in order to utterly destroy the man who dared to deface his lover's corpse. Yet even with the threat now forming behind him, Demado continued stabbing his arm and the associated ki knife through the reddish mush that now composed the majority of Iago's form.
He's gonna fiiiiire at uuuuuus... you done yet? Because that's a thing you should do now!
I have it under control. Remember, the knife extends.
Unseen by most, if not all of the crowds, the energy blade began extending into the ground, burrowing through as though it weren't there. Unseen, but not unnoticed: Vegeta and Goku both sensed the blade's sudden extension, and whilst Goku began wondering how he got the knife to do that, and whether or not that other guy was starting to go Super Saiyan 2 because he could still sense his energy rising, Vegeta began taking note of their position relative to the two Super-Elites now in the arena, and quickly realised that a line formed between the three of them; that blade just kept getting longer and longer, which meant...
"Move, move, MOVE!" Vegeta cried, pushing Goku to one side and himself in the opposite direction, though his voice went unnoticed by the audience in the heat of the moment.
"Huh?" Goku exclaimed. "What's the big problem?"
At that exact moment, Iago's mate gave a yell, and launched an overcharged, bright white energy beam at the Neo-Saiyan's back; in the same instant, both the yell and the sound of the attack were overpowered by a loud VWOOM, and a momentary wall of red that seemed to pass through the beam itself, a result of Demado's sudden movement.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, just for a moment. Then, four things split.
First, the beam itself, and the primary target of the blade's motion, separated into two equal halves, now destined to pass to the sides of their intended target and strike the ground several meters behind him.
Second, the launcher of the beam, vertically bisected by the attack. He had held the title "Master of War" for his actions as a soldier of Frieza's army, awarded after the fact by King Vegeta himself; yet now, in his panic, he had foolishly left himself wide open to the single fell swoop that instantly ended his life, his hair returning to black from gold almost instantaneously.
Next, and from here on unintentionally, the field of energy that surrounded the battleground, damaged from just after the apex of the dome right down to where the blade re-entered the ground. A flaw thus revealed: whilst the energy barrier could withstand an assault from a Super Saiyan over time, a concentration of energy significantly beyond that level, focused into what was effectively an ultra-fine edge, could quite easily break through; and so it did, causing the otherwise invisible barrier to flicker green for several moments after the knife passed through, then re-establishing its integrity once the weapon's path had long since moved on.
Finally, the arena boundaries themselves, including the stadium, the unfortunate Saiyans and Tuffles who had sat in the path of the blade, and the royal grandstand where Vegeta and Goku had sat, with the blade itself passing through the space where Goku's left shoulder had been not a moment before.
All this before the dirt dragged up by the blade's upswing had returned to the ground.
Time resumed its normal perceived course, and the beam halves exploded as they ran into the earth behind Demado, shrouding him and the two halves of the beam's launcher in dust and the aftershock of energy that resulted. As the chaos of the sudden turn of events subsided, and everyone began to parse what exactly had happened, the sound that made itself known to everybody was a psychotic giggle; its source seemed to be the apparent victor of the prior fight, yet as the dust cleared, the giggle turned into a victorious laugh, then jubilant whoops as Demado, returned to his base form, began to leap around exultantly.
"WHOO! YES! I am the winner! I win! MY win! YES! YUSSSS! Yeah!"
This continued for some time, everyone else silent as they observed the general mess he was in, bloody and apparently insane. Eventually, having given the two corpses a double-bird and a suitably loud "fuck you" each, the noise the Neo-Saiyan made lowered itself to nothing, and he turned to face the Prince of Saiyans in the halved royal box. One of the Saiyans, in one half of the stand, was just picking himself up and brushing himself down; the other, clad in royal armour, simply glared at the Neo-Saiyan who had dared to perform such a potentially regicidal act.
"So, mister big boss," Demado began, back to a sing-song voice, "how many points do I get for the double kill?"
"You nearly injured myself and my associate," came Vegeta's response, the conversation still being bounced around the arena, despite the wiring that had been damaged by the blade.
"...oh. Really?"
"Yes, really. That's grounds for execution, you know."
"...you serious bro."
Without another word, the Saiyan Prince began charging an energy beam at the ends of two of his fingers, quite ready to blast the Neo-Saiyan into oblivion, but a hand on his arm stopped him just before he made the attack a reality.
"Can I talk to you for a second before you do that, Prince Vegeta?"
The overly formal manner of Goku's voice didn't turn Vegeta's head - they'd agreed that he'd be referred to in such a tone by the younger Saiyan in public, if only because there would otherwise be problems with formality amongst others toward the Prince. Even so, the audacity of Goku's request caused Vegeta's eye to twitch ever so slightly. For several moments, nothing happened; then, ceding to the suggestion, Vegeta allowed his attack to dissipate, and walked to the back of the public stand with Goku, away from the voice-reflecting technology's reach into it.
"What is it, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked in a whisper, annoyed beyond belief.
"Well, it's just that I don't think he meant to hit either of us with the energy blade. Also, I thought you weren't evil any more?"
"It's not that I'm doing it for fun, but I have to execute him now. He assaulted a royal grandstand, and failed to utilise formal speech in deference to a royal Saiyan; if I allow him to live, what's stopping others from trying the same thing? It won't do, he's got to go."
"But Vegeta-" Goku began, pleading.
"He's insane beyond belief anyway, Kakarot!" Vegeta continued, the annoyance now creeping into his tone. "Why the hell do you want him alive so much?!"
"I just think it's unfair that we should decide who lives and who dies so readily. I mean, I could've let Krillin kill you after our first battle..."
"Okay, no, there's no way you can be mistaking evil for batshit insane."
"I didn't say that! I'm just saying, you got redeemed, and there are places on Earth and on Plant where insanity can be treated, so..."
Vegeta simply made motions with his mouth at this point, unwilling to point out the severe flaw in Goku's logic regarding how the different species responded to psychiatric treatment - in the case of most known Neo-Saiyans, not at all positively.
"Look, what I suggest is that we ask him to apologise for nearly injuring you, and to promise not to do it again. Then, if he doesn't do that, we can exile him."
"Exile a Super Saiyan where, exactly? Where can we exile him?"
"Well, Earth."
"No-"
"It's the safest place!" Goku empathically stated. "There's at least one Super Saiyan 2 there at all times, in the form of Gohan, who can go Mystic as well just in case, and then we've got Goten and Trunks there too, who are almost certainly more powerful than this guy, and they can fuse and become a Super Saiyan 3, so there's no problem! If he tries to do anything, any of them could stop him for good, but we should give him a chance when he hasn't done anything deliberate towards us."
"He just killed two people, and gleefully mutilated one of their corpses."
"I don't know that that was him, either..." Goku noted seriously. "I've never felt anything like it, his ki just went back to full like he'd never expended any, and his demeanour changed completely. Never mind the energy blade he formed... something's up with all of that, and I'm curious to find out what."
"..."
"Come on. You can't tell me you're not curious either."
"...if- if- I allow him to live. If I allow him to live, then you never ask me to spare one of my subjects ever again."
"You know I can't promise that, Vegeta..."
"Five seconds, Kakarot." Vegeta finished, holding up the same two fingers from before, and beginning to charge energy in them once again. The implication was obvious, and the choice was made after three seconds. "Fine, have your way about it," Goku relented, "but I'll do my best to change your mind later on." With a compromise reached, Vegeta again allowed the energy at his fingers to fade, and strode back to the balcony of the destroyed grandstand, where he observed Demado wandering around, apparently blowing at a stray molecule of dust in the air. He coughed to draw the Neo-Saiyan's attention, then again with greater force when the first failed to catch his ear. Demado turned and waved, apparently oblivious to how thin the line he stood upon was.
"Well, Demado, it seems you are the single luckiest being in the universe." Vegeta began. "At the request of my associate Kakarot, you have been granted a reprieve of sorts. You now have two options. The first option is exile. You will be taken to a far-off planet, and then left there without a way to return to Plant; indeed, if you are ever seen on Plant again without fulfilling the conditions required of you by the exile, you will be executed on the spot."
"Boo."
"On the other hand..."
Vegeta really didn't want to say this next bit. The Neo-Saiyan would exploit it to get away with attempted regicide, he just knew it.
"...you may also choose to apologise, in a formal speech, for the actions you have perpetrated toward me this day. Make a choice."
For several moments, nobody said a word.
"...but I don't want to apologise." Demado said. "I don't need to apologise for anything, because I was the one who won the fight, and then the other guy tried to kill me, and then I killed him first in self-defense, and nothing hit you so you're fine, and then you're trying to get me to do stuff for being in the wrong when I'm not-"
Vegeta just stared as Demado's voice became increasingly frantic and whiny. If he wasn't looking at a technical adult, he'd swear the Neo-Saiyan was about to have a temper tantrum.
"-and then I don't get anything for being the winner because you say so, and now you're just being a DUMB STUPID IDIOT, AND THAT ISN'T FAIR ON ME, AND YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO RULE THE HONOUR DUEL PROPERLY, AND FURTHERMORE YOU'RE JUST BEING A JACKASS FOR THIS, AND-"
"And that's why he's here now," said Goku, as he finished retelling the story to his friends at Kame House. The inhabitants of the small island the building was located on were alternately staring at Goku, wondering if everything he'd said was real, and at the Neo-Saiyan sulking in the corner, as if to reconfirm the truth behind the tale.
"...uh huuuh," Krillin finally murmured. "Aaaand you think bringing him to live with us is a good idea..."
"Because there's always a Super Saiyan more powerful than him within flying distance."
"...and within prevention-of-violent-murder distance?"
"Oh, don't worry about that." Demado suddenly stated, drawing everyone's attention. "I promise that I'll be a good member of this planet's society for as long as necessary, even if it means repressing my usual instincts."
"Uh. That was... formal."
"Well, Kakarot- can I call you Goku?" Demado asked as he turned to face the group, a certain determined hardness in his eyes. "Maybe I'm just feeling sorry for myself right now, and sincerely want to change myself for the better whilst on this planet."
"You had a temper tantrum when asked to apologise earlier..." Goku pointed out.
"...it didn't seem that bad from my perspective. And in any case, I'll be sure I find a way to apologise sincerely as soon as I can."
"...weeell, if you say so. Anyways, I've gotta get home now. Chi-Chi's cooking dinosaur tonight!"
"Oh, uh, could I come along? Saiyan appetite, and all."
"Kame House does have a good supply of food, but... eh... I don't see why not," Goku said with a shrug. Grinning, Demado went and took Goku's arm with his hand; the Saiyan's other hand went to his forehead, and the two beings suddenly disappeared - followed shortly after by a sigh of relief from everyone else in the house. Even with an eerily calm promise of goodwill, they just didn't feel all that safe around him... from what they'd heard, many Neo-Saiyans were mercurial in their temperament, and they didn't want to be around when that temperament changed to "destroy everything".
Those were some ballsy to the wallsy lies you were telling.
What else was I supposed to do? If you'd just let me do the talking back on Plant, we wouldn't be in this situation now.
Yeah, but he totally insulted me by giving me options I didn't like!
And look where complaining about those got you. Now, if you want to do well on this planet- or for that matter, escape the clutches of the almighty idiot and the vindictive ruler- then I suggest you let me do most of the talking whilst we're here. Agreed?
Eeeeeeerrrrhhh-
Don't whine, please. You know it makes the headspace unbearable.
You like me really, I know you do. You couldn't life without my cuh-raaazy antics.
...I couldn't "life"?
Well, yeah, you know... like "live"?
Then just say "live".
Only if you admit to the thing I said.
...sure. You're the only one I trust to be truthful with me, I suppose, so...
D'awwwww. Thanks, sis.
You're welcome, brother.
Cliffhanger no jutsu. #obligatory terrible-ninja-show-related pun
But seriously, the next chapter is this one, and it is here in good time once more. Enjoy it, comment on it, and once again, character opinions are not my opinions. Anyways, another review has been made, this one by bobamon:
Very interesting premise, I've seen it done before but not with such a high standard of writing so im very much looking forward to seeing how this pans out. Im hoping that we'll get a few more 'bro moments' from Goku and Vegeta too.
Just to confirm, is this set post buu? Also, a lot of great fics got readers through posting a link on dbz multiverse comments and I reckon that if this continues as it has done then it could be at least as good as most of them.
Thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you like the fic, and the moment between Goku and Vegeta. I'll see if I can't get a few more of those in at some point, since you asked so nicely.
As for when the fic is set, yes, it is post-Buu. Specifically, the starting point of chapter 1 is set at some point during the ten years between the end of the Buu saga and the Strongest Under the Heavens tournament where Uub first appears, though most likely after the events of Battle of Gods; for reference's sake, the events of DBZ did occur in roughly the same manner as in canon, though with slight differences in the logic behind some occurences due to the initial setups. For instance, Kakarot was sent to Earth as an infant to act as an advance scout of sorts for the Planet Trade Organisation, having been deliberately volunteered for such by Bardock on account of his being seen as weak; on a more personal level, Vegeta was still obsessed with pride up to the Buu saga, but largely because he felt Frieza had taken it away from his race by drafting their forces into his army so brutally, with the same logic preventing him from returning to Plant after Frieza's downfall, as he felt that he couldn't return to his father having been outclassed by commoners and half-breeds, i.e. Goku and sons.
Also, because I failed to mention it before, I'll consider advertising on DBM's comments at some point, though whether or not I will may depend on whether or not comments can be made anonymously. That being said, I could be a scumbag and recruit the viewers to do it for me... but I'm not, so I won't.
