Disclaimer: I do not own anything DBZ, except for my Vegeta wall scroll.
Warning: Angst, Humor, Language and (wait for it…) Violence!
Archive: Hell yeah!
Special Thanks to Stormy, Maria and Stacey for keeping me working on this. And to the wonderful people who leave such great reviews. Frozenflower: Sorry I do not have a mailing list. Believe me, I am too lazy to do something that ambitious. As you can see, I'm too lazy to even have my own FFN account. This is my sister's. To whom I am grateful for letting me use it.
-Annabell
A Killer in Me
Chapter 12
Carefully, Goku lifted the unconscious Saiyan prince out of the escape pod and handed him to Piccolo, who took the injured Vegeta to the tiny medical bay of the Capsule Corp space ship. Goku followed with Gotenks, who was already rousing from the fresh air. The tall Saiyan had just set Gotenks down on a narrow padded examination table when the fusion ran out and all of the sudden there were two boys laying side by side and blinking up at their rescuers.
"Dad!" Goten exclaimed and jumped into Goku's arms, giving him a hug. Goku wrapped his arms around his youngest son and hugged him back, so hard that Goten's eyeballs bulged and he gasped for air.
"Oops, sorry Goten," he smiled.
"Goten! We were worried about you," Gohan admonished his little brother from behind Goku. But he couldn't help but smile with relief while he said it.
"Where's my dad?" Trunks asked still sitting on the table, looking around for the Saiyan prince.
"Here," Piccolo answered, still cradling Vegeta in his massive arms. The furry tail hung limp like a rag. Blood was smeared across his lips and there were several darkening bruises on his chubby cheeks.
"Is he okay?" Goku asked, still holding Goten. He came over to inspect the little prince.
"He's alive, but someone sure beat the crap out of him," Piccolo said as he gently set Vegeta down on the table and eased off the blood spattered Furious George shirt. Gohan whistled in amazement at the black and purple-mottled bruises that coated Vegeta's slender stomach and chest.
"He's got several broken ribs, and probably severe internal injuries. Do we have any Senzu beans?" the Nameckian asked as he gently probed Vegeta's chest.
Goku looked expectantly at Gohan, who frowned as he thought. "I think there are a few in the control room," he said.
"I'll get them!" Trunks leaped off the table and hurried into the control room.
Vegeta was rousing, his dark eyes drifting open and closing slowly. He tried to draw a breath but a spasm of coughing made him curl on his side in a ball. Blood gushed out of his mouth, staining the table. Uncharacteristically, Piccolo laid a comforting hand on the prince's back, who didn't even notice its presence. Goten clung to his father's neck, worry clouded his normally carefree features. His expression was mirrored in Goku's face.
"Hurry up Trunks!" Gohan shouted. He hated seeing anyone hurt like this, and somehow little Vegeta seemed especially vulnerable.
"Here they are!" Trunks rushed in holding a simple brown cloth bag. He reached in, fished out a bean and handed it to Piccolo. The Nameckian fighter pried Vegeta's clenched jaws apart and forced the bean into his mouth. At first Vegeta fought to spit it out, but Piccolo held him in a firm grip and soon he swallowed, nearly gagging on his own blood.
Which a few seconds, Vegeta's dark eyes opened and his taut body relaxed as he took a deep breath, marveling at the complete lack of pain. Sitting up, he shook his head and looked at the Z fighters, who were beaming back at him. "What did you do?" he asked, his dark eyes wide with wonder.
"It was a Senzu bean," Piccolo told him as he stepped back.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to elaborate, but Piccolo declined the unspoken invitation. Seeing this, the prince shrugged, "Whatever," and hopped down off the table. He was smart enough to draw his own conclusions and he was sure that somewhere in his scouter's database there was a record of these 'Senzu beans'. He picked up his Furious George shirt and ignoring the drying blood slipped it back on. As his tail curled, Vegeta felt the dried blood on that as well, sticking clumps of fur together in stiff spikes. It itched.
"Don't you want something cleaner?" Gohan asked as they headed toward the control room. He intended to set a course and get underway as soon as possible. He knew that Chi-Chi was going to be furious at them and hanging around in space wasn't going to lessen her temper at all. And when Chi-Chi was mad she tended to break things, like dishes, glasses and the occasional wall.
"What for?" Vegeta asked, puzzled. This was his shirt, and a little blood wasn't going to kill him. He would be damned if he wore anything else.
"So are we ready to go home?" Goku asked, still holding Goten. They had all followed Gohan into the control room when Vegeta's announcement brought them up short.
"I'm not going."
"Why?" Goku asked looking down at the small prince.
"It's none of your business." Vegeta was standing with his arms folded over his chest and his tail was jerking from side to side. His trademark scowl was firmly in place, the picture of stubbornness.
"What makes you think that you have a choice?" Piccolo rumbled from behind the prince.
Turning, Vegeta glared up at Piccolo, nearly baring his teeth in rage. "You can't force me to go," he snarled.
"Sure we can," Piccolo said with a barely disguised smugness. "That's the fun of having lots of power. You get to order other people around."
"Vegeta, why don't you want to go back?" Goku asked again. He knew Vegeta and the prince always had a motive for whatever he did. It was just that most of the time Vegeta never bothered to share them with anyone. But this time the Z fighters would hear them or they all would go straight home.
"I don't have to tell you," Vegeta snapped defensively as he put his back to a wall. Gohan and Piccolo exchanged a look. They could see that Vegeta was feeling cornered, and they knew that he did not react well to threats, it only made him dig in his heels even more. Piccolo was just starting to look for a wrench when Trunks spoke up.
"Does that planet have anything to do with it?" he asked innocently from the navigation controls.
Rounding on his son, Vegeta glared daggers. But Trunks just blinked. He didn't think he spilled any secrets.
"The what?" Gohan asked.
"A planet, you know, the thing that orbits a star, sometimes has life on it. A planet," Piccolo said a bit impatiently. Being trapped in deep space with five Saiyans was being to get on his nerves. He could sense Kami's interest in what was going on and mentally growled at the former guardian of Earth. They were not going to get involved further. But he had a sinking feeling that he was going to be outvoted on this because Nail was mildly interested too.
"I know what a planet is, Piccolo," Gohan said a trifle hurt at the Nameckian's sarcasm.
"Which planet?" Goku asked, trying to keep up with the conversation.
Vegeta refused to say a word, but the youngest Son knew the answer and raised his hand and waved it in the air. "Oh! Oh! I know! It's Freiza Planet number 34," Goten supplied helpfully, from his father's arms.
"Why do you want to go there?" Gohan asked.
"Vegeta's father sent him to spy on Freiza and he wants to go to Freiza Planet number 34 because he couldn't before," Goten said, oblivious to Vegeta's growing irritation.
Piccolo looked carefully at the young prince and knew that there was much more going on them what Vegeta was letting on. But this time it was different. Now Vegeta was weaker and Piccolo was determined to get answers. "All right Vegeta, spill it. Or we are heading for Earth right now," he said, trying not to enjoy the prince's discomfort too much.
"You heard the brat," Vegeta said shortly, almost pouting.
"Yes, and now lets hear the rest of it. Starting with how you were sent to spy on Freiza." Piccolo folded his arms across his chest and looked sternly down on the young prince. For a minute, they glared at each other, and then Vegeta huffed.
"Okay, fine. Have it your way." He leaned against the bulkhead with his arms crossed. The Z fighters all looked at each other in excitement. As an adult, Vegeta never would have explained anything and there was no way they could have forced him to. But now, they were finally going to get a glimpse of Vegeta's past.
"My father, King Vegeta, grew suspicious of Freiza even though they were supposedly allies. Freiza always did think he was King Shit of Turd Mountain, and his attitude stunk about as much. So my father discreetly, and I use the word advisedly considering he was a Saiyan, dug around and found out some very interesting things about that freak's species. It turned out that was no record of any Ice-jin ever being as powerful as Freiza and his family."
"You mean King Cold and Cooler?" Gohan asked.
Vegeta opened his dark eyes. "Yes, now are you done interrupting? You wanted to hear this, so let me tell it my way."
Gohan nodded and indicated that the prince should continue. Satisfied, Vegeta closed his eyes again. "This added to my father's suspicions and he concluded that there was no natural way for Freiza to be so powerful, therefore someone must have given him that power." (1)
Opening his eyes, he could see that his audience was hanging on his every word. Smirking, Vegeta continued. "About this time, Freiza seemed to be getting to be quite nervous about the Saiyans. His troops loved to fight, but Saiyans tend to carry things to extremes. So in an effort to gain more control over them, he 'requested' that my father turn me over to him. He intended to use me as a hostage to insure their good behavior." Vegeta snorted in disdain.
"I take it that didn't work?" Piccolo commented.
"The fool obviously didn't understand Saiyans as well as he thought," Vegeta replied. "If he had ever carried through with the threat to harm me, they would have attacked with everything they had. Saiyans love a good fight and that would have been a perfect excuse to attack the bastard. But my father had a different idea, so he agreed. He wanted me to spy on Freiza."
"Weren't you pretty young for that?" Piccolo asked.
Vegeta grinned evilly. "That's the kind of thinking that gets you into trouble, Nameck. Freiza was a paranoid, but not even he thought that a 'stupid' Saiyan cub could possibly be any kind of spy. It never crossed that freak's mind that I was gathering information about his organization and his supporters for my father."
"How long did you do this?" Gohan asked. Following Piccolo's lead, he figured it was safe to start asking questions again.
"Even after he destroyed Vegetasei I still kept gathering information. No one took me seriously, even my staged tantrums were considered 'cute'." Vegeta grimaced sourly. He hated being thought of as 'cute'. "The soldiers became used to me and would let their guard down when I was around, because who would have thought that a brat prince from a dead world could be a threat? That's how I found out about Freiza Planet number 34."
"How" Gohan asked.
Vegeta answered. "Some of us were sent to purge a planet of insect people who had barely invented the wheel. It was a boring purge, I yawned all the way through it. Anyway, I was coming over to report our progress when I overheard Zarbon and Dodoria gossiping. They were worse than two old ladies sometimes. It turned out that they were discussing a certain planet that had the nerve to destroy three of Freiza's best teams who were trying to invade, and he found that rather irritating."
"I can imagine," Piccolo muttered.
"So Freiza decided to go there himself with twenty five more teams and see what the problem was."
"It seems like a bit of overkill," Gohan noted.
Vegeta nodded. "Freiza was always a bit ostentatious. When he got there he sent in his troops and sat back and waited for them to conquer the planet. And waited and waited. But they didn't return and he had no idea what had happened to them, at least not right away. But he found out soon enough when the inhabitants started lobbing the bodies of the invasion teams at him."
"I'll bet that didn't go over well with him," Goku said with a grin.
"From what I heard, he invented several new swearwords on the spot. Freiza can be very narrow-minded sometimes when things don't go according to his plans."
"I would have loved to seen his face," Gohan snickered.
Smirking, Vegeta nodded. "Me too. After he calmed down a bit, he started making the usual threats about how he was much more powerful than his underlings, and that if they didn't surrender, he would destroy them all."
"So then what happened?" Trunks asked, completely caught up in the story.
"Completely unimpressed, the inhabitants threw some more bodies at him."
The Saiyans laughed out loud and even Piccolo smiled.
Vegeta went on. "I guess Freiza raved for quite a while after that and made more threats, then he decided that he had had enough of being mocked. He couldn't stand it when people didn't take him seriously."
"I think it was because he was so short. Short people tend to be touchy about being made fun of." Piccolo observed.
Shooting a glare at Piccolo, Vegeta turned his back to the Nameckian. "So he fired up one of those big energy balls of his and threw it at the planet."
"So then what happened?" Goku and Goten asked at the same time.
"They bounced it right back at him. He wasn't expecting that and toasted his own tail for his efforts," Vegeta said offhandedly. The Saiyans roared with delight and even Piccolo chuckled. "So did the next one, and the one after that. After about the seventh try, Freiza finally gave up. One thing about Freiza was that he was persistent to the point of idiocy. After he put out his smoldering hide, he declared the entire planet quarantined and no one was allowed to either go to the planet or try to leave it."
"What happened then?" Gohan asked, figuring it was his turn.
Vegeta shrugged. "Zarbon got called away and Dodoria spotted me so I strolled in, pretending like I just got there. That fat fool might have been suspicious if I hadn't been a Saiyan. Everybody knows that Saiyans wouldn't know a secret if they stumbled over one coming from the bathroom."
Piccolo studied the cocky prince. Somewhere along the way, Vegeta had slipped up, and they had caught onto him. But as of now the prince didn't remember that. The Nameckian frowned when an odd thought occurred to him. When they changed Vegeta back, would he then remember everything he had gone through in Freiza's service once again? And would he go back to being the same vicious-tempered, bitter Vegeta that they all knew and (snort) loved? That took Piccolo's thought in a different direction.
What he was seeing here was the true Vegeta, unspoiled by cruelty and hate. Sure, he was still arrogant and proud, condescending and sarcastic, but the underlying rage was missing from the Saiyan prince, the ceaseless drive to be better, faster, stronger than those around him. In an odd way, he missed the old Vegeta, because for some reason that Piccolo did not care to examine too closely, he felt like he could relate to that version of the Saiyan prince.
"So why do you want to go there now?" Gohan was asking, pulling Piccolo out of his ruminations.
"I didn't know the planet's location then, because Freiza was worried that someone might come up with the idea of allying themselves with whomever lived there, and that didn't sit too well with him. So Freiza had the coordinates erased from all records and forbade anyone to speak of it again. But it appears that sometime after I grew up, I found out where the planet was."
"I knew that you tended to go into space occasionally and I always wondered why. I guess you've been looking for the planet all this time," Piccolo said.
Goku scratched his head; " I didn't know you took trips into space, Vegeta."
"You've been dead, Dad." Gohan reminded him.
"Oh yeah," Goku grinned.
"Now can we get on with it?" Vegeta asked impatiently. He had told his story and wanted to get underway. It had accomplished his goal for the time being. He was not going back to Earth. There was no way in hell he was going to let them change him back.
"Well, what do you think guys?" Goku proposed. To him, it sounded like a great adventure. It had been a while since anything interesting had happened and frankly he was getting rather bored with his life. Grinning to himself he thought Leave it to Vegeta to liven things up around here.
"Lets go!" Trunks immediately volunteered. This sounded like it had potential to be the coolest adventure he had done in a while, since the Buu incident. Adventuring with his father was rapidly becoming one of his favorite pastimes.
"Yeah!" Goten agreed wholeheartedly.
"I'm in," Goku said.
Gohan hesitated. He had school tomorrow and he just knew that Chi-Chi wasn't going to take this very well. But the usually repressed Saiyan side of him ached for the adventure. He looked at Piccolo.
Piccolo gritted his teeth as all eyes fell on him. He knew that Kami wanted to go along for whatever reason, and he could feel Nail's interest as well. Mentally, he growled at them, but they refused to back down. Finally he gave in. "All right! I suppose someone should go along that has some sense at least."
"So we are agreed?" Gohan asked.
"Yup!" the Saiyans, minus Vegeta who just smirked triumphantly, chorused.
"Vegeta, do you have the coordinates?" Gohan asked.
Rolling his eyes, the prince said, "Of course." Vegeta reached up and took off his scouter. Stalking his way to the control panel, he opened a port and plugged it into the Capsule Corps spaceship's main computer. Then he said in a clear voice, "Download Freiza Planet files main block exe. authorization Prince Vegeta 23."
For several seconds, nothing seemed to happen, and then the scouter beeped twice. "There," he said shortly, crossing his arms. "All set."
"So where are we going?" Goku asked. Seeing the others giving him incredulous looks, amended his question. "I meant, where in the galaxy are we going?"
Rolling his eyes, Vegeta sneered. "Display Planet Freiza number 34." The screen lit up, starting with the most incredible three-dimensional graphic view of a spiral galaxy. Literally millions of different stars were depicted in tiny relief against the bright blackness of space. Piccolo thought he could pick out a red giant and several nebulas and maybe even a quasar. It was easy to tell that the state of the art computer had to struggle to keep up with the files it was trying to display.
"This is our galaxy," Vegeta narrated. He gestured to a small dot to the left with an arrow pointing to it. "We are here."
The image zoomed in tight on the north quadrant. Then graphics divided up a large section of stars into three parts. It then pulled into a tight view of the largest of those parts. It continued to zero in. "This is Freiza Planet number 34." Pointing to a single star that glowed although surrounded by darkened stars, he ordered the computer to zoom in again. The star grew until it glowed brightly in the center of the screen. Orbiting the star were four planets. The second one was highlighted. "This was the one planet that was never purged, not for lack of trying though."
"Why is this planet so important?" Gohan asked as he felt the vibration of the engines as they got underway.
Shooting him an impatient glare, Vegeta tapped his bicep. "I think that whoever lives there might know something about how Freiza got his power. They certainly were strong enough to resist him with no effort."
"Well, whatever. We can discuss this later. Goku, why don't you call Bulma and tell her we will be late," Piccolo suggested.
"Well, she'll yell at me." Goku replied, thinking that Piccolo actually asked him a question.
"It was a rhetorical question, Goku," Piccolo could feel the beginnings of a headache starting already. He blamed Kami and Nail, of course.
"Oh, okay. But why me?" Goku very nearly whined.
"Because she likes you, which is more than can be said for me." Piccolo told him.
"Okay!" Goku said cheering up.
"Besides, your ears aren't as sensitive as mine are," Piccolo said, sounding suspiciously smug.
"Oh all right." Goku went to the control panel and hit a button. Immediately an indignant squeal came from the computer and the screen dissolved into static.
"Kakarrot you oaf, what have you done now?" Vegeta shouted in alarm, fearing his precious scouter had been damaged somehow by Goku's clumsiness.
"Nothing, Vegeta, I swear!" Goku raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. Then he turned around and stared at the screen as it resolved into a picture of a very familiar face.
"Vegeta?" Gohan asked, staring at the image. It looked like the prince, but he had a goatee and mustache. Careworn lines around his face indicated too many hard decisions and too much time scowling. He was wearing some sort of white armor with a strange symbol on the breastplate. Then the picture began to move.
"Are you sure you know how to turn it on?" the older version of Vegeta asked the camera, a slightly mischievous smirk on his lips.
"Of course father!" was a child's indignant reply. The voice was familiar and as one they all turned and looked at Vegeta, who was staring in horror at the image. "Don't treat me like I'm one of those lame-brained third class idiots who spend half the day trying to tie their shoes."
"Oh my god, it that King Vegeta?" Gohan asked in awe. For the first time in their lives, the Earth-raised Saiyans saw the face of their King. The resemblance between the small prince and the person on the screen was uncanny. It was obvious that it could be no other person.
"My grandfather?" Trunks breathed, standing up for a better look.
"It seems to be," Piccolo answered, because Vegeta wasn't saying a word. He was standing with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his face was pale, but his gaze never left the screen. Then the image on the screen drew their attention again.
"I was just teasing you son. It was an excellent idea you had there. No one will know it isn't a scouter. Take care of that. I expect you to bring back all the information I need so we can defeat Freiza once and for all." The king was smiling at the camera, which jostled briefly then steadied again.
"Of course, I am the prince of Vegetasei and will not let you down." The prince came into view of the camera, as he had obviously been holding it and put it down. He looked up at his father, who towered over him. The King looked down at his son, his expression was of fierce pride for the prince.
"I know you won't. You truly are the Prince of all Saiyans," he said, and then grinned evilly as he abruptly scooped up the child who struggled indignantly.
"Father! Put me down!" he demanded then broke into a fit of giggles as the king tickled his sides.
"Nope, I think I will hold you for a while," the King said, still tickling his son, who was now shrieking with laughter.
"Stop!" Vegeta squirmed as he laughed. His tail lashed the air as he struggled to free himself from the playful onslaught.
The King did stop, and for a moment, unguarded tenderness filled his normally stern features. The prince didn't see it though; he was too busy trying to catch his breath as he was held in his father's strong arms.
To the Earth-raised Saiyans, it was like looking into a different world, one heard only in legends. For years Vegeta had only spoken of the fighting abilities and the pride of the Saiyans. But here was the King of that warlike race, playing with his son like an ordinary father. And seeing Vegeta himself looking so young and carefree and downright adorable it was almost unimaginable that these Saiyans could inspire terror throughout their quadrant of the galaxy.
King Vegeta's expression grew grave. "Be careful son. Freiza is stronger than you can imagine. Use all your cunning and never let your guard down. You are the Prince of the Saiyans, the pride of our people. Never forget that."
The little prince looked into his father's eyes, a cocksure grin on his face. "Don't worry. We'll kill that maniac and then we'll rule the galaxy. You wait and see."
Putting his son down, the King straightened up. "Yes we will. But you have to get that information first."
"You can count on me," Vegeta assured his father as he gazed up at the King in pure adoration, his furry tail curling behind him like a question mark.
The image on the screen swooped violently as Vegeta ran over and scooped up his scouter, then it steadied again as the prince put it on. The image focused on the King of Vegetasei once more. "I know son. I'm proud of you." Then the screen abruptly went dark as Vegeta, the one on the ship, grabbed his scouter and not quite ran from the control room, leaving a stunned silence in his wake.
TBC
(1) See Then It Comes To Be. Posted under Reber's author page at FFN.
