Chapter 12: Mistakes of the Father
By: senzubean
I do not own Dragon Ball Z in any way. I make no profit from this story. I just wrote it for fun.
King Vegeta looked up at the sky once again. Prince Vegeta was being sent to help occupy the planet he was working on. The King was eager to see his son again. He had been punished for his refusal of compliance to Frieza by the assassination of his mate and depravation of his son.
Unfortunately, it was a supervised meeting. Frieza's men were swarming all over the planet keeping the saiyans in check. The King was fairly certain that he would have little opportunity to talk with his son privately. This was something that needed to happen though. Nappa's reports were disturbing. Vegeta was behaving and being obedient like his father expected, but according to his former commander in chief, Prince Vegeta was doing more than just obeying Frieza, he was asking Frieza for missions. This infuriated the King . That kind of behavior was getting too close to Frieza's behavior.
Finally, two space pods landed in the field in the distance. The king smiled and motioned with a hand gesture for a group of his elite to follow him. The procession made its way to greet the heir and his caretaker.
The two warriors were already out of their pods when the King and his followers arrived. The King smiled at his son, happy to see that he looked healthy. He was a little heartbroken when Vegeta didn't return it.
"Hello Vegeta." His father said somewhat uncomfortably.
"Father." Vegeta replied curtly and bowed to him.
The King laughed nervously. His son was not acting at all like the boy that had been stolen from him months ago. "You look well. And you've grown too! It's been so long since I've seen you. Nappa tells me that you've increased your powerlevel by 200. That's excellent Vegeta, I'm very pleased."
Vegeta bowed again. "Thank you Father. I've been taking extra missions in order to increase my combat rating."
"Yes." The King replied hesitantly. "I wish to discuss that with you, but we can do that tonight."
The King turned to Nappa. "How are things?"
"Fine, your majesty. Prince Vegeta is very well behaved as you expected and we haven't had any real problems. Save those first few weeks."
"Well, that's in the past." King Vegeta replied quickly, not wanting to bring it up. "You two must be hungry."
"No," Vegeta replied "We've eaten already. I'd like to get started."
"I could eat again." Nappa laughed. Prince Vegeta gave him a look.
Nappa turned to the king defeated. "He's very disciplined too."
"Yes." The King replied curtly. He didn't like his son's behavior at all.
"Where is the battle field?" Vegeta demanded impatiently.
The King turned to the elite soldiers flanking him. "Escort the Prince to the battlefield."
The elite left with Vegeta following. The King turned to Nappa.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded angrily.
"Your majesty?"
"What's this about extra missions? Why are you allowing him to request them? You're his caretaker, you're responsible for him."
"I know, I told him he shouldn't, but he's stubborn. Besides, if he's making Frieza happy then.."
"I don't give a damn about Frieza's happiness!" the King erupted and pointed in the direction of his son. " That's not the child that was taken away from me three months ago!"
"Well, Kids change."
"Not like that! " The king sighed. He was heartbroken that his son was acting like Frieza, the creature he despised more than anything else in the universe. "He's not to go on any more extra missions, that's an order , Nappa! I'll give it to Vegeta as well." The King Barked viciously.
"As you wish, your Majesty." Replied Nappa and bowed, he wouldn't dare argue. He noticed that The King himself had changed. There was a time when he cared about nothing but the Prince's powerlevel. The speculations were true. The King loved his mate and was crushed by her death.
King Vegeta then went to fetch his son for a much needed talk.
The King was surprised to see that his son was killing off more inhabitants at one time than he could. The other elite were praising him. Vegeta was smiling proudly and eagerly showing off. The King frowned as he walked over to him.
"Vegeta, I want to talk to you."
The King was surprised at his son again. Prince Vegeta's reaction was highly unexpected. He frowned up at his father and very boldly replied,
"You said that we'd talk tonight. I'm busy right now." He then returned to his destroying. The King had seen enough. He grabbed his son by the arm and dragged him roughly off to the side, out of earshot of anyone.
"Hey!" Vegeta complained. "I have a job to do, do you want me to get into trouble?"
The King let his unpleased child go in front of him. "I told you to do everything they told you. I didn't tell you to go giving them ideas."
"I..I thought you'd be glad! You said you were pleased with my progress!" Vegeta replied astonished. "I thought you wanted me to defeat Frieza someday!"
"Be quiet, Vegeta!" The King warned. That was not a good sentence to be saying when surrounded by Frieza's warriors. People were assassinated for the suspicion of treason against the monster, Prince Vegeta was now openly, and ;loudly opposing him.
"Isn't that what you wanted though?"
"Yes but…"
"But what? I was just increasing my power!"
"Can't you increase your power by fighting his men?" The king demanded. Frieza himself had once stated the advantage of that.
"Of course, but occupying planets increases it faster."
The King growled in frustration. He was about to sound like a hypocrite but things had changed and what was important to him once was not important to him now. He didn't want his son to be another Frieza.
"Look, I don't want you occupying any more planets than you have to. Do you understand?"
Vegeta looked upon his father with extreme furiousness. .
King Vegeta could plainly see his son's frustration. He himself would be angry if he strived to please someone and then was reprimanded for it. "Vegeta, I'm pleased that you're trying to embrace this responsibility, but you have to be more discreet in your training. You're not to go on any more extra missions. If I find out that you are , then I'll punish you the next time we're together. Do you understand?"
Vegeta looked at him angrily for another few seconds. "I understand." He finally replied.
"Good." The King said. "You may go back to what you were doing ."
"Thank you, Father." Vegeta spat in an icy tone, turned on his heel then started to leave.
King Vegeta shook his head realizing that his son was enraged and most likely would not listen to what he said. His mate had been right all along, he should have treated his son with more respect. Now, when it counted, Vegeta would not heed his father's advice.
The King wasn't satisfied. And never the type of man to just settle, he decided that he would try one last attempt to get through to his son.
"Vegeta, I'm not angry with you." He called out after him. " I just want you to be careful. I….I don't want to see you hurt."
Prince Vegeta turned and stared at his father for a few minutes. The king thought that he had finally gotten through to him and was relieved.
"Hmph!" Vegeta finally replied. " I don't have time for your sentimental crap. I know you dislike what I've become. I'm sick of your hypocrisy! You said you wanted me to train hard in order to reach the goal of super saiyan and that's what I'm doing. But I'm not doing it for you anymore father. I'm doing it for myself because I want revenge!"
The King looked at his son speechless. His reply had been something the King would expect from an adult not a five year old kid. The Prince then turned and ran away towards the camp before his father could say anything else to him.
Vegeta was about to enter the campsite. He was angry and wasn't really watching what was going on around him. One of Frieza's alien occupationalists wasn't watching where he was going either. The two warriors collided. The latter basically tripping over the short Vegeta.
" IDIOT!"
"WATCH IT, MONKEY!"
Each of them was instantly enraged by each other's comments.
"How dare you speak to me that way, you little runt!"
"How dare you speak to me that way, idiot!"
Vegeta and the large alien warrior stood face to face in a standoff just at the entrance of the saiyan campsite. Instantly A large crowd of Frieza's soldiers and Elite Saiyans gathered around to investigate the commotion.
The tall, purple skinned lizard-like alien laughed at the little saiyan prince obnoxiously.
"What're you doing here anyway brat? Couldn't your parents find you a baby-sitter?"
"I don't need any baby-sitter! And I'm not a brat!" Vegeta replied defiantly. "Don't you know who I am?"
"You look like just another weak, ugly, monkey brat to me." The purple guy replied. A few Saiyans gasped at the disrespectful remark aimed at their future King.
Vegeta scowled, he wasn't about to stand there and be humiliated in front all those people.
"I am Prince Vegeta, and I will very soon be the strongest of all Saiyans." Vegeta explained and crossed his arms. "I will understand if you'd like to apologize to me now, but I'm afraid that I'm not in the mood to accept it."
The alien chuckled. "Is that a challenge?" he asked.
"It is." Vegeta replied and stood up as tall as he could and let his arms drop to his sides. "are you brave enough to accept it? Or are you just talk ?"
The alien chuckled and shook his head exasperated with the young saiyan. "You're really starting to push my buttons kid."
"Which on is the "Go " Button?" Vegeta demanded sarcastically "You seem to be having problems initiating your defense mechanism yourself. I guess I'll have to do it for you."
"Defense." The alien chuckled amused. "That's it, brat." He stated sinisterly and then unsheathed a well hidden sword from behind his back. Vegeta hadn't even noticed it. He pulled it out swiftly and angled the point down towards Vegeta's face.
Vegeta looked at it unimpressed. He wasn't afraid of weapons.
"You're puny brat. There's no way you're that strong, but you may be fast." The alien stated as he rotated the blade to angle to the side. "Let's see just how fast."
The alien brought the sword up and then brought it down with a speed that couldn't be seen by most of the elite.
Prince Vegeta blinked in confusion. He didn't know what had just happened. He had been ready to move but the blade came down too fast. He heard it slice through something. It sounded like cloth and possibly flesh, but he didn't feel any pain and he was sure he'd remained put.
The clang of the sword dropping to the ground startled Vegeta out of his confusion. He looked up abruptly to see his father standing over him. King Vegeta had the rude alien by the throat. Prince Vegeta angled his eyes down towards where he had been standing and saw his father's blue pants soaked red with blood. Torrents of the warm, red liquid pumped from the artery in his leg and splattered to the ground. The wound was deep.
"F..father." Vegeta started concerned. His father glared at his son's tormentor with fury in his eyes. No one dare move to stop the King from what he was doing.
Finally, because he couldn't take it anymore, one of the aliens friends piped up t say. "Put him down."
The King did this promptly. He clenched his hand around the alien's neck, crushing his airway closed, then, he dropped the lifeless corpse to the ground.
The crowd soon disbursed. Frieza's reinforcements collected their fallen comrade, not disputing the matter. This was the course of military justice. Soon the King and his elite were alone in the clearing.
The King and Prince stood there staring at each other for a moment or two. Prince Vegeta was humiliated that his father had to help him, but was more concerned that he'd been injured doing so. The King was concerned that his son had gotten himself into serious danger so effortlessly. He'd been watching the whole scene since it's beginning. He was glad that he pursued his angry child, if he hadn't, he would be the corpse now, not the alien.
Prince Vegeta wanted to say something but was torn between his feelings of humiliation and guilt and couldn't decide whether to complain or apologize. The King's wound was spouting blood the whole time they stood there. Several of his men tried to prompt their two superiors to come to the camp for first aid but neither the king nor heir heard them. Prince Vegeta was jolted from his trance by his father's collapsing to the ground.
"Father!" Vegeta exclaimed and ran to him. He stopped just short as his father struggled to push himself into a sitting position.. He glared at his son, angered that he had almost gotten himself killed. "What will make you understand?"
Vegeta gulped quietly, not liking the expression on his father's face at all.
"Vegeta." The King said casually as a medic stitched up the gash in his muscular leg, "You need to be much more careful around Frieza's men if you are to survive."
"But Father.." Vegeta protested. A hand gesture from his father stopped him.
"You need to listen to me ,Vegeta. This is very important! If you ignore the words about to leave my lips then you might as well just kill yourself."
The Prince looked at his father in disbelief. Surely whatever he had to say couldn't be that life preserving, noting he had ever said to him was. In all fairness it was the passing down from generation to generation of the arrogant Pride of the family Vegeta that had nearly gotten him killed that night.
The King paused and waited for the medic to finish his sutures. Prince Vegeta watched in morbid curiosity as the needle entered his father's flesh, passed through thick muscle and exited through the other side. Then the two edges of the wound were pulled tightly together, expelling blood . Vegeta had been there the whole time and he hadn't seen his father be administered any anesthetic. The whole scene was positively gut-wrenching. And there his father was watching, and not flinching in the slightest. It hurt The Prince's pride to know that he himself in that situation would have to be restrained.
Finally the wound was wrapped in bandages and the medic departed, leaving father and son alone in the King's private tent.
"Listen! I want you to keep that saucy mouth of yours shut for once and pay close attention to everything I have to say! We don't have a lot of time! Do you understand?" The King said in a tone that the Prince knew meant that he meant business. He nodded in agreement.
"Good." The King sighed, relieved at not having to deal with another argument. He listened intently to the goings on outside, and when he was sure they were alone for the moment, continued.
"It seems, Vegeta, that while I taught you to increase your power, I've taught you nothing else."
"That's not true Father!" Vegeta protested.
"Are we going to have another argument?" The king nearly yelled.
"I'm sorry, Father, it won't happen again." The King gave him a warning glare and said. "It is true. There is a saying that goes something like, 'If you pull the rains too tight the horse will bolt.' Have you ever heard that Vegeta?"
"No father."
"Well, the meaning is that if you try and control someone and give them no freedom they will revolt against you. That is what I did with you."
"I'm not revolting against you."
"Yes you are, my boy, You don't even realize it."
"I'm sorr.."
"NO!"
The Prince cowered back a step at his father's furious objection.
"Do not apologize, Vegeta! Don't ever apologize to me! This is all my fault!"
The King heaved a mournful sigh and looked at his son with the eyes of a defeated, crushed man. This frightened the Prince. He had thought his father to be a perfect warrior. But now, Vegeta saw that he was not.
"Your mother was so right! I should have been more respectful towards you. Why should I expect you to listen to me when I have not listened to you? Well I'm begging you to listen to me now, Vegeta. Please take my advice, despite the fact that I have hurt you. Please, my son, you'll die if you don't. I am right about that."
Vegeta stared at his father, flabbergasted. Did he actually say those things or did he just imagine it. He saw that The king was waiting for an answer.
"I promise, Father. I'll do as you say." Vegeta said solemnly, maintaining eye contact as he did.
The king exhaled relieved. "Come here." He motioned towards himself.
Vegeta advanced a little bit nervously. His father wasn't exactly the most stable person. As soon as he was close enough, the king did something surprising. He reached down and ran his fingers through his son's hair resting his fingers over the contour of his round head.
" Today's events have shown me that you have inherited the trademark pride of the clan Vegeta. Do not let it ruin you as it did myself and our ancestors before us. Don't be too proud to realize what's important to you. And don't allow your pride to prohibit you from realizing where true importance lays." He tussled his child's hair affectionately for a moment.
" Promise me that you'll remember!"
Vegeta stammered , trying to absorb all his father had said. "I promise Father, I won't forget."
"Good." The King replied and removed his hand from the Prince's head. "Now, go back to Nappa."
Vegeta turned away shyly and headed out of the tent. His father had never said such things. He knew that he loved his mother, but he never knew that his father loved him too. Now, it was unmistakable, he did love him. But he wasn't surprised, somehow he'd always known that.
The King remained staring after his son well after he'd vanished form sight. A proud smile slowly passed over his face.
The next morning, Vegeta ran as quietly as he could behind a stone wall separating the battlefield from the part of the planet that had just been destroyed. He didn't want Frieza's reinforcements to see him not working. He was in such a good mood that morning that he just didn't feel like killing the species of the planet. He had good reason to be pleasant. His father was fine and was up and limping around giving instructions to his elite soldiers.
Silently, he watched the warriors do their dirty business, trying to not think about how much he disliked the work. He was afraid of turning merciful, then he'd have good reason feel unsafe.
He turned away from the battle and headed to the half demolished village the warriors had just passed through. There would undoubtedly be a store in the village and usually the men would leave some food un-pillaged on their way through. Despite having eaten breakfast an hour ago, the Prince was famished.
Casually, he walked down the main street, stepping over corpses and scanning the ground for any interesting object that may present itself. He was startled from his inspection by a group of people talking as they left a building. Vegeta could tell right away they were scientists. He decided to keep going his way and ignore them. Knowing that if he started talking to them he'd spend the entire day tagging along. Their work interested him greatly and it would remind him of how much he missed Letta.
He shuffled along at a comfortable pace, staring at the ground. He was looking for anything interesting but was hoping to find a toy of some sort. Suddenly something came into his view. Someone's feet. Vegeta looked up to see who they belonged to and was startled by who he saw.
"What are you doing here? Isn't the battlefield over there?" The purple alien asked. He was accompanied by three other aliens of his species, they were all officials of some sort. It was the same race of alien that his father had killed the evening before. Not only that, but the one that had addressed Vegeta was one of Frieza's top officials. He had a lot of power in Frieza's army. He made reports to Frieza and made sure the Saiyans were doing the job right. Vegeta knew that right now he wasn't doing his job at all.
"I was just looking for something I lost yesterday." Vegeta lied hoping to stay out of trouble.
"Your honor?" The alien demanded.
Vegeta was startled by the question. "Pardon?" he asked, wanting to know exactly what the official meant by that.
"You heard me, monkey." The official replied. "The way you handled yourself last night was deplorable, you should have finished that fight yourself."
Vegeta glared at him enraged. The man was trying to injure his pride. Little did he know, the Saiyan Prince's pride could not be injured so easily. He didn't want other's thinking they could just go around disrespecting him. But he had made a promise to his father to be discreet and to stay out of trouble.
"I'm afraid that I cannot change those events. But it may console you to know that such an event will never occur in the future." He tried to walk past the man. The official caught him by the collar of his armor and lifted him in the air. Vegeta struggled to free himself, but it was no use, the official was incredibly strong.
He smiled menacingly at Vegeta. "That will not console me, monkey. that was my cousin your father killed, and my best friend." The official replied. "You should have fought him not your daddy." The man laughed and took a hold of Vegeta's face in his slimy hands. "But I see that Daddy is not here. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to teach you a lesson."
The official then let go of Vegeta's armor and held him up by his face. Vegeta was trying to figure out how he was going to talk himself out of this situation. He knew that he could not get out of it violently as he usually would. The whole thing frustrated him. Negotiating wasn't any saiyan's strong point.
Suddenly, The official threw Vegeta down to the ground . Vegeta lay there stunned for a moment. Blood dripped from a scalp wound on the back of his head. He had slammed headfirst on to the pavement and he had been severely wounded in the very same spot only months before. He was already down for the count. His head pounded and the planet was wobbling back and forth in front of his eyes. But that wasn't what concerned Vegeta, what concerned him was that all four aliens had gathered around him and they were all smiling down at him evilly.
"What are they doing?" One scientist asked the other.
"Looks like they're kicking a corpse around." The other replied.
The two men continued to study the confusing scene. They were far away and it did appear like they were playing kickball. One scientist was sure that he heard noises coming from their ball, and contrary to what his friend had said, it didn't look like the corpses that littered the planet. The second scientist shrugged and started to walk into the building they had been advancing on.
"Wait." The first scientist ordered and continued to dissect the scene. Suddenly he had his answer. "They're kicking the Saiyan Prince around!".
The scientist closest to the building rushed to get out his scouter and activated the communication mechanism.
The other advanced toward the officials. The aliens stopped their game and looked at the unwelcome addition to the scene.
"That's enough, you have no right to do that." The scientist said.
The official in charge laughed. "Mind your own business, scientist."
"This is my business. You're disrupting our work. You're the official in charge. You have a duty to uphold an optimal working environment.."
The official glared at the scientist furiously. "I said that this is none of your business! Now go do your job. I don't care what the working conditions are like."
The other officials laughed, and two of them recommenced their game. The scientist watched in horror as they kicked the broken and bloody Vegeta around. He occasionally cried out weakly in pain, indicating that he wasn't unconscious yet. The scientist stood there quivering with anger but he didn't say anything else to them.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
The aliens looked unimpressed at the new intruder. King Vegeta landed heavily about twenty feet from the group attacking his son. A group of his finest elite soldiers flanked either side of him, ready to avenge their future king.
The official in charge smiled and then Kicked Prince Vegeta across the ground to his friend, who in turn kicked him to his other friend, who then violently kicked the Prince with all his might back to the official in charge. Blood flew through the air as the Vegeta tumbled across the ground. He stopped and lay silent at the feet of the official in charge. The official smiled evilly at the King and rolled the Prince back and forth underneath his foot, leaving a red track mark on the ground.
The King growled and gritted his teeth but did nothing except for that.
Nappa was confused by his King's behavior. He hadn't waited so long to protect the Prince the previous night. "Your Majesty…"
"Quiet!" Spat the King and continued to glare.
The official chuckled pleasantly in reaction to the King's obvious distress. "What's your problem? You didn't think we'd just let him get away with what he did?"
"He did nothing to you or your comrade. I was the one that killed him." The King explained watching the red stain under his son spread out with every passing second.
"Granted , you shouldn't have interfered. But he
"You don't want to teach him anything, you want to kill him to get back at me!" The King roared.
The official grunted unimpressed. "Observe, " He stated casually and kicked the unconscious child to his father's feet. He was very still except for minimal chest movement as he tried to breathe. But instead of his chest inflating it collapsed upon itself as he took each breath. "As you can see, he is still alive. If you hurry, he might remain so for another little while." The alien turned away and laughed. "But if he is as stupid as his father, then I doubt he will survive for long in this organization."
The laughter of the alien officials died as they walked away. Promptly, the King knelt beside his son in order to assess the damage to his little body. He was devastated by what he saw in front of him, The child was much more injured than the king imagined. The Prince was in serious trouble and needed medical assistance immediately.
He gently lifted him off the ground hoping he wasn't doing any more damage and then turned towards Nappa.
"Take him to Frieza's closest base and hurry! " The King ordered and then passed Vegeta over to his caretaker. Nappa flew off immediately at top speed towards the spaceships.
The other elite followed slowly, leaving the King by himself. He looked down at his red gloves, that had been white before he picked up his son.
The great King Vegeta, collapsed to his knees.
Tear drops fell silently to the ground, slightly diluting a puddle of the Prince's blood, spread out on the ground. "What have I done?" the King said in a mere whisper, put his head in his hands, and cried alone.