The Prince Ascendant

Chapter Ten: The Prince Possessed

I see your heart, Vegeta.

It was as if someone had driven a wedge into Vegeta's mind. A searing pain filled his head, one of such intensity that it would surely have killed a lesser man. It only took Vegeta a fraction of a second to realize what was happening: his mind was under attack and his body was responding violently to the brutal assault. What few thoughts he was able to cobble together as he screamed in agony surmised that this was the work of that wizard, Babidi. The Prince of All Saiyans fought against the violation tooth and nail...that was when the visions started.

Floating, disembodied, the Prince saw a young Saiyan boy with tall, spiky hair sitting in his space pod, hovering over an unsuspecting world. Next to him was a large, bald Saiyan in royal armour: Nappa. It took Vegeta a few moments to realize the youngster floating next to Nappa was himself, only he was just ten years-old. The planet over which they were hovering was Planet Jagaimo.

"So, Nappa," the younger Vegeta said in a bored tone. "Frieza said to blow this planet up, not subjugate it, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Nappa responded in his normal, gruff tone. "Something about their leader insulting him for the last time. Said it was just a pointless waste of space, at this rate."

"How boring," Vegeta the Younger said in a tone of despair. "I want to go down and fight these guys! What do you say, Nappa? Care for a little...sport?"

"Well," Nappa began, scratching his chin. "Frieza didn't explicitly forbid us from going down to have a little fun, first, so he can't get too mad."

What followed after left the Vegeta of the present physically ill. The boy he once was and Nappa systematically annihilated all the largest settlements...and they were laughing the entire time, as if it were all just a game. Vegeta wanted to throttle the two of them, wanted to stop their genocidal rampage, but he couldn't seem to act in this dream world, much to his dismay. Instead he watched as yet another army was reduced to a heap of severed limbs and shredded sinew.

Even as a child, you were a monster, weren't you, Vegeta? A voice in his head asked mockingly. It was Babidi, he was sure of it. Dabura's voice was a lot deeper, and he doubted the Daemon King had any mind control magic of his own at his disposal. Vegeta wanted to yell out that he wasn't like that, anymore, but he found that his lips refused to open, his tongue refused to move. Not convinced, are we? The voice asked with a laugh. Well, then, let's see what else we can find...

The scene before him faded, and was replaced with an eerily similar scene. It was when he and Nappa were on their way to Earth...when they'd stopped by Planet Arlia. He was forced to watch, silently, as he and Nappa tore, both metaphorically and literally, through the Arlian king's royal guards for their own amusement. He could sense his younger self's sense of superiority, could almost watch as his ego was sated with every fresh kill. What was it Bulma said that was called? An...inferiority complex? That seemed to fit as he watched and remembered the dark spot in his mind that felt powerless in the face of Frieza. Tormenting and killing those weaker than him was a balm to his critically wounded sense of self.

Vegeta was peripherally aware of his ki surging and his aura flaring as he tried desperately to defend his mind.

"I am displeased with you, Vegeta," he heard in his mind before his focus returned inward. "You disobeyed me. I told you that planet was to be conquered, not destroyed."

Vegeta saw a lavender hand tipped with black fingernails strike his fifteen year-old self hard across the face before picking him up by his collar. He saw the form of his most hated enemy, Frieza, holding his younger self with a barely-hidden look of distaste on his face.

"You will not disobey me again," Frieza said in a threatening tone. "You will follow orders, is that understood?"

"Y-Yes, sir!" Vegeta the Younger coughed out. "I won't disobey you again, I promise."

"That's more like it," Frieza said before tossing the boy on to his cot.

As the door closed behind the tyrant, Vegeta heard his younger self start to sob. He, of course, knew why the young man in front of him was crying: tomorrow was his sixteenth birthday, and his father wasn't alive to celebrate his ascendance to manhood. Vegeta might not have cared about many people in his younger days, but the Prince knew that there was a hole in his heart where King Vegeta, his father, once was...one that hadn't ever healed fully.

Oh my, such a vulnerable little boy... The voice inside his head sneered. Miss your daddy, do we?

Vegeta's mind broke free of the spell for a moment, just enough to respond: of course I do, you gibbering moron!

Recalcitrance! Babidi yelled into his mind. We can't have that! I'll show you who's boss around here!

Another sharp stab of pain shot through Vegeta's head, as if someone had thrown a spear through it. His back arched and he screamed as the vision in his head was replaced by another, this one more recent: his battle with Kakarot. The Prince of All Saiyans could keenly see every emotion playing across his face as he fought with the low-class warrior, the clown that would be king. The thrill of fighting a strong opponent, of the Saiyan's driving motivation in life, was strong, but there was another, something...deeper.

It was disbelief. Not only disbelief that this lowborn piece of trash, a person of such pathetic standing that he ought to be little more than cannon fodder, was actually managing to keep up with him, son of the King...but that this was one Saiyan who didn't kneel at the very mention of his name. A Saiyan that his title couldn't cow into submission. A Saiyan for whom respect wasn't automatically given. In the mind of his past self, Vegeta thought how such a thing shouldn't be possible. Even when he was a boy, those of lower birth would kneel at his command, polish his boots with their tongue if he demanded it of them. Even Nappa, tough brute that he was, submitted the his authority.

It drove a spike into his very perception of reality. That one realization, after this battle, would shatter his ego. No longer would he be the unstoppable force of nature he'd felt like when he annihilated small worlds populated by weak creatures. No longer was he the top dog amongst his kind. Being beaten by a combination of a peasant, his half-breed son, a midget, and an obese man with a sword had brought the Prince low, and it was a humiliation that would end up taking over a decade to reconcile.

Almost as if sensing his train of thought, the scene shifted to when he learned that it had been not him, but the clown, Kakarot, who had not only achieved the legendary Super Saiyan form, but had also destroyed the killer of their kind. It was...intellectually incongruous that such a thing had happened. It had been his people the Frieza had killed, his father that the bastard had murdered in cold blood. This moron didn't even know what his real name was until his own brother had told it to him. He thought he was human! Yet it was he, not the high-born Prince, that had brought the tyrant to justice.

Vegeta sat there, wondering what he could do now. Frieza had seemed an almost impossibly high target to reach, and Kakarot had exceeded even him! Now, he had to compete with another Saiyan, one that was almost ludicrously talented in battle, instead of the lazy, arrogant Frost Daemon that had made his life hell. The thought of being left behind by such...such scum had enraged Vegeta, then. The Saiyan who knew not his place had bested him, and that stung. His pride wounded, Vegeta fled the planet when he'd learned he'd accidentally gotten that Earth woman, Bulma, pregnant. This was, of course, after another Saiyan had proven that he, too, was capable of transformation. He needed time, and his panic drove him to take the ship Dr. Briefs had designed to the depths of space..to escape his worries and to escape his nightmares. He did not succeed.

What have we here, hmm? A damaged ego? Scared of being a dad? Babidi said mockingly. And you call yourself a Prince! A failure as a father, a failure as a husband...a failure as a son.

Through the pain, Vegeta's mind became clearer. Go to hell, he said across the telepathic link.

No thank you, Babidi said flippantly. I'm not a big fan of gigantic spikes and rivers of blood.

Vegeta wanted badly for the pain to be over. There was something Babidi had mentioned, something that struck a chord with him...my son, he thought.

What do you think you're doing?! Babidi screeched inside his head.

Actively hammering his mind into order, Vegeta forced the scene to change. It fluctuated, at first, before quickly fading and being replaced with something quite recent. He was staring at his son and daughter, both sparring...as Super Saiyans. Pride, happiness, and love filled his heart as he saw his two children going at it with smiles on their faces. He could feel the vise-like grip on his mind weaken a little. Babidi was yelling incoherently in his mind, something about disobedience and causing him pain. It no longer mattered to the Prince of All Saiyans; he'd found what he needed to win, all he needed to do was push harder. For that, he needed something specific, something with a lot of power behind it...

The scene wavered and changed once more. The Prince was standing, exhausted and battered, at the edge of what was, at one time, the Cell Games arena. Kakarot had used his instant transmission technique to take Cell off world before he exploded, but a cold, ominous, ki-laden wind blew behind him, signaling Kakarot's failure. He watched, in slow motion, as the Death Beam attack raced toward his unaware son, eventually piercing his chest and going through his heart, striking him dead.

Just as it had then, Vegeta's mind was filled with righteous anger. The need to protect the people he loved filled his mind, and he felt his ki surge even higher than before. His senses back in the real world, he yelled at the top of his lungs as the ground beneath him shook violently. The threads of magic entangling his mind with Babidi's will were becoming stretched beyond capacity and, as suddenly as the assault had began, the magic binding his mind shattered with a brilliant, white light.

Panting heavily, Vegeta's mind began to lose some of its cloudiness. He heard someone else breathing heavily...it was Sakura. Looking to his right, he saw the young woman with her head clutched in her hands. Gohan was holding her, wrapping his arms around her back, trying to help the woman he'd come to view as a sister break the evil wizard's spell.

"Sakura, come on," Gohan said, tears streaking down his face. "You can do this! You're stronger than he is! You've got to fight!"

It all happened so fast...Sakura's limbs fell slack, revealing her face. A blank, yet hateful, look was in her eyes and her mouth was drawn in a slight scowl...on her forehead, a distinct "M" marking blazed.

"Gohan-!" was all the Supreme Kai could get out before a sickening, squelching sound came from where the young man was crouched.

Author's Notes

I know, this is a short one...the next one will likely be a bit short, as well. However, I thought they might serve as an interesting glimpse into the mind, and past, of our favourite Prince of All Saiyans.

Yes, Babidi is attacking both of them simultaneously. Maintaining the spell on two targets takes more magical power than just doing it with a single person, which is one of the reasons Vegeta broke free before he became a Majin. The other reason is that this Vegeta is a lot less insecure than he was in canon, meaning he's a much, much more difficult target. Dabura heard him and Sakura chewing out Goku and thought that, if these two were willing to put a man who positively reeked of goodness on the spot, then there must be some darkness in them; it was a case of coming to the right conclusion for the wrong reasons.

I just wanna put this out there: the next chapter is going to be extremely unpleasant. In fact, I'd go so far as to put a "Trigger Warning: physical, emotional, and sexual abuse" tag on it. I'm only going to be pulling enough punches to keep inside the T rating I gave this story. Honestly, I didn't expect I'd be writing something like this, but I feel its necessary to develop Sakura as a character and explain why she's turned. Again, you have been warned. One last time: I will not be fucking around with the next chapter.

On a lighter note, I created a Reddit thread for this story in the /r/FanFiction subreddit. seems to disapprove of links in stories and profiles, so look for "The Prince Ascendant by Hagunemnon" in Reddit's FanFiction section. If you've any questions or comments, feel free to post 'em there! I'll be able to respond more readily, thus making communication easier! Ain't that somethin?

Anywho, I'll check you guys later for the next part of The Prince Ascendant, Chapter Eleven: The Hate With Hazel Eyes. Take care!