The saiyan prince was restless as he sat in his pod. With only a few minutes left before he arrived at Frieza's spaceship, it would make the most sense to put his tablet away, close his eyes, and prepare for his meeting with the most powerful being in the galaxy.
But he couldn't. He couldn't stop replaying their mission over and over again on his screen, unblinking as he watched a routine mission only become more and more confusing.
The application Vegeta was running on the tablet, Glaze, showed a map of the planet they were on and the progress of how it was conquered via tracking their scouter. Each member of his squadron was represented by a glowing dot. His own was blue, Nappa's yellow, Raditz's black, Broly's green, and Kakarot's red.
His own time of territory decimation was four hours, not setting any galactic records, but he'd done worse. With the planet's level of resistance, he had actually expected to be a few minutes slower, but that would require an enemy to come at least close to his expectations. A standard the young prince had yet to see put to the test, to his complete lack of surprise.
Nappa taking a few hours longer was fine, by that point the two of them together had taken over 65% of the planet. Which meant that Raditz took …33% of the planet?
This wouldn't do. This would not do at all.
Vegeta dialed in Kakarot's number in his pod's contact screen and waited, much longer than he should've needed to, for the clown to pick up.
"Bwhu?" Kakarot groaned into his pod's camera. "We're gonna be at Frieza's in like two minutes, can't this wait?"
"You imbecile, were you in suspended animation?!" The prince snarled, "This trip is only half an hour long from the ship, don't you think you have more important things to be doing?"
"Than rest? No, not really" Kakarot said with a yawn. "Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to finish this nice dream I was having."
"Resting from what? The nap you took on planet Ror?" His anger was quickly subsumed by his cunning as an idea struck into his mind, "That was probably all you were good for after that thrashing you took."
Kakarot's finger was hovering over the "End Call" button, but his face morphed from bored disinterest to disgust. "Thrashing? You think somebody beat me? On that planet?"
"Well your scouter was destroyed on the mission almost immediately and your brother ended up collecting your slack, so explain to me what else exactly could've happened."
"A destroyed scouter doesn't mean I got beat, " Kakarot said.
"Your current role in the squadron is a privilege, not a right, Kakrot. Would you like to go back to the days of being simple artillery?" Vegeta asked.
"No."
Vegeta could see the frustration rising in his face. It was good, he needed to remember his place.
"What was that, Kakarot?"
"No, Prince Vegeta. I'll work faster next time."
"Very good, you're learning quicker and quicker each day." With a condescending smirk, Vegeta watched as Kakarot glared into the screen.
"May I hang up now, your princeliness?"
"Oh, in about five seconds."
They waited in five seconds of agonizing silence that the prince inflicted on his soldier until both of them received a notification on their screen, they had arrived at Frieza's ship.
"Now you may hang up."
The fool's frustration was a sight he'd never get tired of.
The saiyan pods docked on Frieza's ship, each of them trailing after one another through the opening in the top of the ship like bees to a hive.
"To the hive we go!" Was a saying that Nappa had always said to the Prince to try and get him to laugh, but it had never worked. Sure, Kakarot would laugh at it like the carefree buffoons he was, but it hit too close to home for the young prince.
They were nothing but insects to Frieza, reporting in to him, carrying out missions for him, willing to put their lives on the line for whatever he demanded. It had been this way for decades, even before the destruction of Planet Vegeta.
The prince used to spend every night thinking about that planet, about the type of ruler he'd of been. He knew now it was best to keep those thoughts quieted down as far away as he could keep them.
When his pod door opened, Vegeta saw that Zarbon and Dodoria were standing in wait. Zarbon was, as always, making sure that he looked prim and proper. Dodoria had the same look on his face that he always did, a giddiness that only delivering bad news could bring.
"Whadda you two want?" Nappa said as he clambered out of his pod.
Zarbon didn't divert any of his attention away from his grooming as he said, "Not to talk to you, obviously."
"Listen here you little -" Before Nappa could continue, Vegeta raised up a hand to stop him.
"What do you need from me?" Vegeta asked the pair.
"Frieza wants to see you," Dodoria said with a toothy grin, "he said it was quite urgent."
Vegeta and his squadron's faces remained unchanged and not a look was shared between them. It was an urgency that had become routine, with known criteria for its activation and avoidance. Each of them had been through it before, would be through it again, and knew with exacting detail what it would entail.
"Well then don't waste our lord's time or mine," Vegeta said.
"Oh I wouldn't dream of it," Dodoria said. "Rest of you monkeys, you know where your bananas are at, go on!"
With a point to the opposite corridor, the saiyans agreed with a practiced look of acceptance.
Zarbon finally stopped his self care routine and ushered Vegeta towards him and Dodoria. "Now come with us, Little Prince."
A scowl escaped from Vegeta's face as he complied and walked with the two. He only had to to act correctly in front of Frieza, for these two it was only a pleasantry, and one they were wearing thin rapidly.
When the circular door slid open to Frieza's command room, Dodoria and Zarbon immediately took their spots next to the door, flanking each side.
Before Vegeta walked in he made sure to make his face as neutral as possible. The emperor didn't need more ammunition. He immediately fell down to one knee with his face pointed towards the ground.
"Lord Frieza," Vegeta said, "How may I help you today?"
Frieza sat in his hovering chair, watching over a hologram displaying the invasion of Ror. It was displaying the same telling of events that Vegeta's data did, and the emperor's expression was all too familiar.
"Do you have the faintest clue of why I called you in here today?" Frieza asked as the hologram's stream came to an end and he replayed it from the beginning.
Vegeta was silent, knowing the trap was already laid. There was no correct answer for this, no explanation that would reduce the repercussions he would face, no escape from what Frieza would do to his squad. It was best to just ride it out on Frieza's terms and hope for the best. If there was one thing he could count on, it was the cruel mercy of Frieza's urge for instant satisfaction.
Frieza rotated his chair so that he was facing the Prince and giggled at the sight. "Oh! Already kneeling just like your father, although I believe that monkey was a bit better trained. Vegeta, do as your father would."
Vegeta kept all of the hatred within him, the want to clench his fist or grit his teeth wasn't worth the swift execution he'd receive. Je immediately dropped onto both knees, his palms flat against the ground as he placed his forehead to the cold metal floor.
"Ah, there it is," Frieza said with delight, "the peak of Saiyan Nobility."
Frieza, Dodoria, and Zarbon all let out cackling laughter at the sight. "Oh the look of you monkeys learning your place is one of my favorite parts of ruling," Frieza said before his voice turned to ice, "It almost makes educating you worth it."
"Do you recall what we do here, Vegeta?" Frieza asked.
"Yes, my lord," Vegeta said.
"And what is that exactly? I need to hear the thoughts come from that small rattle in your head you call a brain."
"The Cold Empire focuses on planetary assimilation, acquisition, extermination, and destruction. If a planet cannot be assimilated to the Cold Empire, they are assaulted until they can be acquired as a property for resource exploitation. If they put up more than twenty-four hours of resistance to the acquisition, all sentient life is to be exterminated from the planet. If the conflict wages on for more than seven days, the planet is to be destroyed."
"Very good," Frieza said, "Of course you failed to mention how we sell many of the planets to the highest bidder to avoid too much empiric sprawl, but of course you would. It's simply too much to ask for such a pathetic creature to hope to understand, but I know you can understand this. How many planets do we go through in a month?"
"Dozens, my lord," Vegeta said, "The Saiyan Squadron alone goes through at least five a month and -"
Frieza hopped out from his chair and landed in front of the saiyan, whipping his tail around his neck like a python strangling its prey. "So tell me, Captain of the Saiyan Squadron, has your performance been dropping for the last three years? Only you and Nappa are improving or at the very least staying consistent while the others flounder."
Vegeta's face was beginning to pale from the choking, he had to resist every urge in his body to try and pry Frieza's tale away. The circular scars on his chest were a permanent reminder of what happened to those who touched the emperor.
"You know I would think that with so many of you saiyans around you would understand the need for competition to improve yourself. My brother and I have maintained such a healthy competition over the years, yet the five of you went to planet Thaw and have been slackards ever since."
Usually by now Frieza would stop, but the Emperor was getting too enraptured by his own voice. Vegeta could feel his eyes beginning to roll into the back of his head as Frieza continued on.
"Your next mission is to planet Throhbaq with the monitoring and assistance of the Ginyu squad. If the five of you cannot perform adequately, the weakest of you will be killed in front of you. Do I make myself clear?"
Vegeta's vision was drowning as Frieza used his tail to yank him to his feet, and then tossed him to the floor as hard as he could, a toy that he was done playing with.
Desperate for air, Vegeta hacked and gasped at the floor, much to the disgust of Frieza.
"And now you dirty the floors of my command room?! You insolent trash!"
Frieza's beatings had always been slow, punches and kicks that were meant to chip away at his ego bit by bit. But as Frieza leapt into the air, Vegeta knew that he and his squadron had irritated the emperor in a way they never quite had before.
Frieza slammed both his feet into the base of Vegeta's spine, the only thing covering the cracking of bone were the saiyan's scream of pain.
As he rolled over onto his back, writhing in pain, He only saw the satisfied face of his attacker and the approving grins of their accomplices.
"Nice one, Lord Frieza!" Dodoria said.
"Oh he looks much better this way," Zarbon said, "nothing better than a man learning their place."
"My thoughts exactly," Frieza said, "I trust you understand that failure is not an option for this next mission, correct Prince Vegeta?"
"Y-Yes, Lord Frieza," Vegeta choked out through the pain, "we'll work faster next time."
"Good," Frieza said as he turned his attention back to his henchmen, "now drag this trash out of my sight. The monkey needs to get his strength up for the big mission."
The two dragged the prince by his arms, taking in all of the attention from their fellow Frieza soldiers as they dragged the battered saiyan throughout the ship. Dodoria proudly pumped the unresponsive saiyan's arm into the air when passing by his fellow soldiers, as if he had personally taken part in dismantling him. Zarbon could hardly be bothered to care less about the prince, instead making sure that all of the femasoldiers who gawked at the sight made sure they were looking at his best side.
By the time they had gotten to the mess hall, the cafeteria chef had already stopped serving food, and the pair merely dropped him face first on the floor.
"Enjoy finding your food," Dodoria said as the both of them left the prince laying on the ground in a packed cafeteria.
That's when it began, the snickering, the whispering. He knew that every eye was on him, every mind racing with thoughts of how pathetic he was.
His people were once a terror to the galaxy, and now their strongest had been reduced to this. He was their prince, but what did that even mean? Being royalty to a group of playthings of a superior empire.
If his grandfather had known this would be their fate when they knelt the knee to the Cold family, would he have gone through with it, or would he have fought it to his last breath? To his people's last breath? The thought always played through the young prince's head, but it wasn't much like it mattered, he knew what option he himself would choose, and he had to live with it every single day.
It was humiliating. It was an insult to everything he'd ever stood for. It was just another day of living under Frieza's rule. It made him so angry he wanted to cry, but he couldn't let them get that out of him, he needed to be strong now.
Just as Vegeta began dragging himself forward, he found his hand grabbed by one more than twice the size of his.
"Prince Vegeta," Nappa said, "We all saved some of our food for you, seeing how long those …. Debriefings can take."
His most loyal soldier gave him the same pained and understanding look he always gave him after a debriefing with Frieza. Sympathy was not a trait common in saiyans, the only other one he'd ever known to show it was his mother, but Nappa was always full of surprises.
Nappa gently lifted his prince to his feet, but saw the agony consuming his face, "C'mon eat fast and I'll get you to a healing pod afterwards. Even Kakarot saved some food for you, so better get to it quickly before he remembers how hungry he is."
With body battered and his spirit tormented, he joined in with his fellow saiyans and prepared for another day of life under Frieza. Another day as the prince of all saiyans.